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EXPOSITIONS  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE 


Expositions  of  Holy  Scripture 

A  COMMENTARY  ON  THE  BIBLE 
COMPLEtTE  IN  32  VOLUMES 

Bp  tbe  IRev,  Hlexan^er  inoaclaren 

Contents  of  tbe  Tirst  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

I  The  Book  of  Genesis. 

2.  The  Book  of  Isaiah  (Chapters  I-XLVIII) . 

3.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew.  Vol.  I  (Chapters  I-VIll). 

4.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  Vol.  II  (Chapters  IX-XVll). 

5.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  Vol.  Ill  (XVlIl-XXVIll). 

6.  The  Book  of  Isaiah   (Chapters  XLIX— LXVI)  and  the  Book  of 

Jeremiah. 

eontents  of  tbe  Second  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

1 .  The  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  Vol.  I  (Chapters  I— VIII) . 

2.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  Vol.  II  (Chapters  VIII-XVI). 

3.  The  Books  of  Elxodus,  Leviticus  and  Numbers. 

4.  The  Books  of  Deuteronomy,  Joshua,  Judges,  Ruth  and  I.  Samuel. 

5.  Second  Book  of  Samuel.  First  Book  of  Kings,  Second  Book  of  Kings 

(to  Chapter  VII). 

6.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Vol.  I  (Chapters  i-XIlI) . 

Contents  of  tbe  tbird  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

1 .  The  AcU  of  the  Apostles.  Vol.  II  (Chapters  XIII  to  end^ . 

2.  The  Gospel  of  St.  John.  Vol.  [  (Chapters  I-VIII). 

3.  The  Gospel  of  St.  John.  Vol.  II  (Chapters  IX-XIV) . 

4.  The  Gospel  of  St.  John.  Vol.  Ill  (Chapters  XV-XXI). 

5.  The  Secoiid  Book  of  Kings  (from  Chapter  VIII).  The  Books  of 

Chronicles,  Ezra.  Nehemiah. 

6.  The  Books  of  Esther.  Job,  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes. 

Contents  of  tbe  Tourtb  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

1.  The  Book  of  Psalms.  Vol.  I. 

2.  The  Book  of  Psalms.  Vol.  II. 

3.  Ezeldel.  Daniel  and  the  Minor  Prophets. 

4.  The  Book  of  St.  Luke.  Vol.  I. 

5.  The  Book  of  St.  Luke.  Vol.  II. 

6.  The  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

Contents  of  tbe  Tiftb  Series*  €i0bt  Uolumes,  $10.00 

1 .  First  and  Second  Corinthians. 

2.  Epheoans. 

3.  Galaliatu  and  PhilippUns. 

4.  Colossiatu  to  TimoUiy. 

5.  Timothy,  Titus,  Philenioii. 

6.  Hebrews,  James. 

7.  First  and  Second  Peter.  First  John. 

8.  Second  and  Third  John.  Jude.  Revelatien. 

Dr.  Alexander  Madaren's  incotnparable  positioaat  the  prince  of  ex- 
positors has  for  more  than  a  generation  been  recognized  throughout  the 
English-speaking  world.  He  holds  an  unchallenged  position,  and  it  is 
believed  that  tlus  series,  embodying  as  it  does  the  treasure  store  of  Dr. 
Maclaren's  lifewotk,  will  be  found  of  priceless  value  by  preachers, 
teachers,  and  readers  of  the  Bible  generally. 

SOLD  ONLY  IN  SERIES 


THE    EPISTLES    OF 


JOHN,   JUDE 


AND    THE    BOOK    OF 


\f       < — ■»s^.t-i-' — >     •!^ 
[*      SEP  25  1911 


REVELATION 


BY 


ALEXANDER   MACLAREN 


D.D.,  LiTT.D. 


NEW  YORK 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  AND  SON 

3  &  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  STREET 

LONDON:  HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 

MCMX 


vi  CONTENTS 

JUDB 

rAOB 

Thk  Common  Salvation  ( Jude  3)  .  .  ,  ,87 

Eebpinq  Oubsblyks  in  thb  Love  of  God  (Jude  20,  21) .         97 
Without  Stumbling  (Jude  24,  25) ,  ,  •  .        105 

REVELATION 

The  Gifts  of  Christ  as  Witness,  Risen  and  Crowned 

(Rev.  i.  4, 5)    .  .  .  .  .  .114 

Christ's  Present  Love  and  Past  Loosing  from  Sins 

(Rev.  i.  5)       ......        126 

Kings  and  Priests  (Rev.  i.  6)        ,  .  •  .       136 

The    King   of   Glory  and   Lord  of    the    Churches 

(Rev.  i.  9-20)  ......        144 

The  Threefold  Common  Heritage  (Rev.  i.  9,  R.V.)        .       150 

The  Living  One  Who  Became  Dead  (Rev.  i.  18)  .       162 

Thb   Seven    Stabs    and    the    Seven    Candlesticks 

(Rev.  ii.  1)      .  .  .  .  .  .       170 

I.— Thb  Victor's  Life-Food  (Rev.  ii.  7)     .  .  .187 


CONTENTS  yii 

MAS 

II.— The  Victor's  Lifk-Cbown  (Rev.  ii.  11)           ,  ,198 

III.— The  Victor's  Life-Secbet  (Rev.  ii.  17)         .  .206 

The  Fibst  and  Last  Wobks  (Rev.  ii.  19)              .  .       215 

IV.— The  Victor's  Life-Poweb  (Rev.  ii.  26-28)      .  .       228 

The  Lord  of  the  Spirits  and  the  Stabs  (Rev.  iii.  1)  .       232 

Walking  in  White  (Rev.  iii.  4)     .             .             ,  ,       243 

v.— The  Victor's  Life-Robe  (Rev.  iii.  5)  .             ,  ,       250 

Keeping  and  Kept  (Rev.  iii.  10)     .             .            ,  .259 

•  Tht  Cbov?n  '  (Rev.  iii.  11)  .              ,             .             ,  .267 

VI.— The  Victob's  Life-Names  (Rev.  iii.  12)          .  .       275 

Laodicea  (Rev.  iii.  15,  19)    .              .             .              .  .        283 
Chbist's  Counsel  to  a  Lukewabm  Church  (Rev.  iii.  18)       293 

Chbist  at  the  Doob  (Rev.  iii.  20)  .             .             .  .302 

VII.— The  Victob's  Sovebeignty  (Rev.  iii.  21)      .  .       812 


viii  CONTENTS 

The  Sbvbn  Etes  of  the  Slain  Lahb  (Rev.  ▼.  6)  .       322 

The  Palm-Beabing  Multitude  (Rev.  vii.  9)  ,  .       331 

The  Song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb  (Rev.  xv.  2,  3)  .       341 

The  New  Jerusalem  on  the  New  Earth  (Rev,  xxi.  1-7 ; 

22-27)  .  .  .  .  .  .  .350 

No  More  Sea  (Rev.  xxi.  1) .  ,  .  .  i       355 

The  City,  the  Citizens,  and  the  King  (Rev.  xxii.  1-11)       366 

The  Triple  Rays  which   make  the  White  Light  of 

Heaven  (Rev.  xxii.  3,  4)       .  .  .  .370 

The     Last    Beatitude     of    the     Ascended     Christ 

(Rev.  xxii.  14)  .....        380 

Christ's    Last    Invitation    from   the    Throne    (Rev. 

xxii.  17)  ,  ,  ,  .  .  .391 


I.  JOHN 

FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD 

•  This  ia  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  f aith.'— 1  John  v.  i. 

No  New  Testament  writer  raakes  such  frequent  use  of 
the  metaphors  of  combat  and  victory  as  this  gentle 
Apostle  John.  None  of  them  seem  to  have  conceived 
so  habitually  of  the  Christian  life  as  being  a  conflict, 
and  in  none  of  their  writings  does  the  clear  note  of 
victory  in  the  use  of  that  word  '  overcometh  '  ring  out 
80  constantly  as  it  does  in  those  of  the  very  Apostle  of 
Love.  Equally  characteristic  of  John's  writings  is  the 
prominence  which  he  gives  to  the  still  contemplation 
of,  and  abiding  in,  Christ.  These  two  conceptions  of 
the  Christian  life  appear  to  be  discordant,  but  are  really 
harmonious. 

There  is  no  doubt  where  John  learned  the  phrase. 
Once  he  had  heard  it  at  a  time  and  in  a  place  which 
stamped  it  on  his  memory  for  ever.  '  Be  of  good  cheer, 
I  have  overcome  the  world,'  said  Christ,  an  hour  before 
Gethsemane.  Long  years  since  then  had  taught  John 
something  of  its  meaning,  and  had  made  him  to  under- 
stand how  the  Master's  victory  might  belong  to  the 
servants.  Hence  in  this  letter  he  has  much  to  say 
about '  overcoming  the  wicked  one,'  and  the  like ;  and 
in  the  Apocalypse  we  never  get  far  away  from  hearing 
the  shout  of  victory,  whether  we  consider  the  sevenfold 
promises  of  the  letters  that  stand  at  the  beginning  of 
the  visions,  or  whether  we  listen  to  such  sayings  as 

A 


2  I.  JOHN  [cH.v. 

this : — •  They  overcame  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,'  or 
the  last  promise  of  all : — '  He  that  overcometh  shall 
inherit  all  things.' 

Thus  bound  together  by  that  link,  as  well  as  by  a 
great  many  more,  are  all  the  writings  which  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  Church  has  attributed  to  this  great  Apostle. 

But  to  come  to  the  words  of  my  text.  They  appear 
in  a  very  remarkable  context  here.  If  you  read  a  verse 
or  two  before,  you  will  get  the  full  singularity  of  their 
introduction.  '  This  is  the  love  of  God,'  says  he,  *  that 
we  keep  His  commandments :  and  His  commandments 
are  not  grievous.'  They  are  very  heavy  and  hard  in 
themselves ;  it  is  very  difficult  to  do  right,  and  to  walk 
in  the  ways  of  God,  and  to  please  Him.  His  command- 
ments are  grievous,  per  se ;  a  heavy  burden,  a  difficult 
thing  to  do — but  let  us  read  on: — 'They  are  not  grievous, 
for  whatsoever  is  born  of  God' — keepeth  the  com- 
mandments ?  No !  •  Whatsoever  is  born  of  God  over- 
cometh the  world.'  That,  thinks  John,  is  the  same  thing 
as  keeping  God's  commandments.  'This  is  the  victory 
that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith.'  Notice, 
then,  first.  What  is  the  true  notion  of  conquering  the 
world  ?  secondly,  How  that  victory  may  be  ours. 

I.  What  is  the  true  notion  of  conquering  the  world  ? 
Let  us  go  back  to  what  I  have  already  said.  Where 
did  John  learn  the  expression?  Who  was  it  that  first 
used  it  ?  It  comes  from  that  never-to-be-forgotten 
night  in  that  upper  room  ;  where,  with  His  life's 
purpose  apparently  crushed  into  nothing,  and  the 
world  just  ready  to  exercise  its  last  power  over  Him 
by  killing  Him,  Jesus  Christ  breaks  out  into  such  a 
strange  strain  of  triumph,  and  in  the  midst  of  apparent 
defeat  lifts  up  that  clarion  note  of  victory: — 'I  have 
overcome  the  world  I ' 


V.4]  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD  3 

He  had  not  made  much  of  it,  according  to  usual 
standards,  had  He  ?  His  life  had  been  the  life  of  a  poor 
man.  Neither  fame  nor  influence,  nor  what  people  call 
success,  had  He  won,  judged  from  the  ordinary  points 
of  view,  and  at  three-and-thirty  is  about  to  be  murdered; 
and  yet  He  says,  *  I  have  beaten  it  all,  and  here  I  stand 
a  conqueror ! '  That  threw  a  flood  of  light  for  John, 
and  for  all  that  had  listened  to  Christ,  on  the  whole 
conditions  of  human  life,  and  on  what  victory  and 
defeat,  success  and  failure  in  this  world  mean.  Not  so 
do  men  usually  estimate  what  conquering  the  world  is. 
Not  so  do  you  and  I  estimate  it  when  we  are  left  to  our 
own  folly  and  our  own  weakness.  Our  notion  of  being 
victorious  in  life  is  when  each  man,  according  to  his 
own  ideal  of  what  is  best,  manages  to  wring  that  ideal 
out  of  a  reluctant  world.  Or,  to  put  it  into  plainer 
words,  a  man  desires,  say,  conspicuous  notoriety  and 
fame.  He  accounts  that  he  has  conquered  when  he 
scrambles  over  all  his  fellows,  and  writes  his  name,  as 
boys  do,  upon  a  wall,  higher  than  anybody  else's  name, 
with  a  bit  of  chalk,  in  writing  that  the  next  winter's 
storm  will  obliterate !  That  is  victory !  The  ultra- 
commercial  ideal  says,  'Found  a  big  business  and 
make  it  pay.'  That  is  to  conquer!  Other  notions, 
higher  and  nobler  than  that,  all  partake  of  the  same 
fallacy  that  if  a  man  can  get  the  world,  the  sum  of 
external  things,  into  his  grip,  and  squeeze  it  as  one 
does  a  grape,  and  get  the  last  drop  of  sweetness  out 
of  it  into  his  thirsty  lips,  he  is  a  conqueror. 

Well !  and  you  may  get  all  that,  whatever  it  is,  that 
seems  to  you  best,  sweetest,  most  needful,  most  tooth- 
some and  delightsome — you  may  get  it  all;  and  in  a 
sense  you  may  have  conquered  the  world,  and  yet  you 
may  be  utterly  beaten  and  enslaved  by  it.     Do  you 


4  I.  JOHN  [cH.v. 

remember  the  old  story— I  make  no  apology  for  the 
plainness  of  it — of  the  man  that  said  to  his  commanding 
officer,  *I  have  taken  a  prisoner.'  'Bring  him  along 
with  you.'  '  He  won't  let  me.'  *  Come  yourself,  then.' 
'  I  can't '  ?  So  you  think  you  have  conquered  the  world 
when  it  yields  you  the  things  you  want,  and  all  the 
while  it  has  conquered  and  captivated  you. 

You  say  *  Mine ' !  It  would  be  a  great  deal  nearer 
the  truth  if  the  possessions,  or  the  love,  or  the  wealth, 
or  the  culture,  or  whatever  else  it  may  be,  that  you 
have  set  your  desire  upon,  were  to  rise  up  and  say  you 
are  theirs !  Utterly  beaten  and  enslaved  many  a  man 
is  by  the  things  that  he  vainly  fancies  he  has  mastered 
and  conquered.  If  you  think  of  how  in  the  process  of 
getting,  you  narrow  yourselves  ;  of  how  much  you 
throw  away;  of  how  eyes  become  blind  to  beauty  or 
goodness  or  graciousness;  of  how  you  become  the  slaves 
of  the  thing  that  you  have  won ;  of  how  the  gold  gets 
into  a  man's  blood  and  makes  his  complexion  as  yellow 
as  jaundice — if  you  think  of  all  that,  and  how  desperate 
and  wretched  you  would  be  if  in  a  minute  it  was  all 
swept  away,  and  how  it  absorbs  your  thoughts  in 
keeping  it  and  looking  after  it,  say,  is  it  you  that  are 
its  master,  or  it  that  is  yours  ? 

Now  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  teaching  of  this 
Epistle.  Following  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus  Christ 
Himself,  the  poor  man,  the  beaten  man,  the  unsuccessful 
man,  may  yet  say, '  I  have  overcome  the  world.'  What 
does  that  mean  ?  Well,  it  is  built  upon  this— the  world, 
meaning  thereby  the  sum  total  of  outward  things, 
considered  as  apart  from  God— the  world  and  God  we 
make  to  be  antagonists  to  one  another.  And  the  world 
woos  me  to  trust  to  it,  to  love  it ;  crowds  in  upon  my 
eye  and  shuts  out  the  greater  things  beyond ;  absorbs 


V.4]  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD  5 

my  attention,  so  that  if  I  let  it  have  its  own  way  I  have 
no  leisure  to  think  about  anything  but  itself.  And  the 
world  conquers  me  when  it  succeeds  in  hindering  me 
from  seeing,  loving,  holding  communion  with  and 
serving  my  Father,  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  conquer  it  when  I  lay  my  hand 
upon  it  and  force  it  to  help  me  to  get  nearer  Him,  to 
get  liker  Him,  to  think  more  often  of  Him,  to  do  His 
will  more  gladly  and  more  constantly.  The  one  victory 
over  the  world  is  to  bend  it  to  serve  me  in  the  highest 
things — the  attainment  of  a  clearer  vision  of  the  Divine 
nature,  the  attainment  of  a  deeper  love  to  God  Himself, 
and  of  a  more  glad  consecration  and  service  to  Him. 
That  is  the  victory — when  you  can  make  the  world  a 
ladder  to  lift  you  to  God.  That  is  its  right  use,  that  is 
victory,  when  all  its  tempting  voices  do  not  draw  you 
away  from  listening  to  the  Supreme  Voice  that  bids 
you  keep  His  commandments.  When  the  world  comes 
between  you  and  God  as  an  obscuring  screen,  it  has 
conquered  you.  When  the  world  comes  between  you 
and  God  as  a  transparent  medium,  you  have  conquered 
it.  To  win  victory  is  to  get  it  beneath  your  feet  and 
stand  upon  it,  and  reach  up  thereby  to  God. 

Now,  dear  brethren,  that  is  the  plain  teaching  of  all 
this  context,  and  I  would  lay  it  upon  your  hearts  and 
upon  my  own.  Do  not  let  us  be  deceived  by  the  false 
estimates  of  the  men  around  us.  Do  not  let  us  forget 
that  the  one  thing  we  have  to  live  for  is  to  know  God, 
and  to  love  and  to  please  Him,  and  that  every  life  is  a 
disastrous  failure,  whatsoever  outward  artificial  ap- 
parent success  it  may  be  enriched  and  beautified  with, 
that  has  not  accomplished  that. 

You  rule  Nature,  you  coerce  winds  and  lightnings 
and  flames  to  your  purposes.    Rule  the  world !    Rule 


6  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

the  world  by  making  it  help  you  to  be  wiser,  gentler, 
nobler,  more  gracious,  more  Christ-like,  more  Christ- 
conscious,  more  full  of  God,  and  more  like  to  Him,  and 
then  you  will  get  the  deepest  delight  out  of  it.  If  a 
man  wanted  to  find  a  wine-press  that  should  squeeze 
out  of  the  vintage  of  this  world  its  last  drop  of  sweetest 
sweetness,  he  would  find  it  in  constant  recognition  of 
the  love  of  God,  and  in  the  coercing  of  all  the  outward 
and  the  visible  to  be  his  help  thereto. 

There  are  the  two  theories ;  the  one  that  we  are  all 
apt  to  fall  into,  of  what  success  and  victory  is ;  the 
other  the  Christian  theory.  Ah !  many  a  poor,  battered 
Lazarus,  full  of  sores,  a  pauper  and  a  mendicant  at 
Dives'  gate;  many  a  poor  old  cottager;  many  a  lonely 
woman  in  her  garret ;  many  a  man  that  has  gone  away 
from  Manchester,  for  instance,  unable  to  get  on  in 
business,  and  obliged  to  creep  into  some  corner  and 
hide  himself,  not  having  succeeded  in  making  a  fortune, 
is  the  victor !  And  many  a  Dives,  fettered  by  his  own 
possessions,  and  the  bond-slave  of  his  own  successes,  is 
beaten  by  the  world  shamefully  and  disastrously ! 
Pray  and  strive  for  the  purged  eyesight  which  shall 
teach  you  what  it  is  to  conquer  the  world,  and  what  it 
is  to  be  conquered  by  it. 

II.  And  now  let  me  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  second 
of  the  points  that  I  have  desired  to  put  before  you,  viz., 
the  method  by  which  this  victory  over  the  world,  of 
making  it  help  us  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God, 
is  to  be  accomplished.  "We  find,  according  to  John's 
fashion,  a  threefold  statement  in  this  context  upon  this 
matter,  each  member  of  which  corresponds  to  and 
heightens  the  preceding.  We  read  thus :— '  Whatsoever 
is  born  of  God  overcometh  the  world.'  'This  is  the 
victory  that  overcometh  the  world,'  or  more  accurately, 


V.4]  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD  7 

'hath  overcome  the  world,  even  our  faith.'  Who  is 
he  that  overcometh  the  world?  He  that  believeth 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  '  the  Son  of  God.'  Wherein  there 
are,  speaking  roughly,  these  three  statements,  that 
the  true  victory  over  the  world  is  won  by  a  new  life,  born 
of  and  kindred  with  God ;  that  that  life  is  kindled  in 
men's  souls  through  their  faith;  that  the  faith  which 
kindles  that  supernatural  life,  the  victorious  antagonist 
of  the  world,  is  the  definite,  specific  faith  in  Jesus  as 
the  Son  of  God.  These  are  the  three  points  which  the 
Apostle  puts  as  the  means  of  conquest  of  the  world. 

The  first  consideration,  then,  suggested  by  these 
statements  is  that  the  one  victorious  antagonist  of  all 
the  powers  of  the  world  which  seek  to  draw  us  away 
from  God,  is  a  life  in  our  hearts  kindred  with  God,  and 
derived  from  God. 

Now  I  know  that  a  great  many  people  turn  away 
from  this  central  representation  of  Christianity  as  if 
it  were  mystical  and  intangible.  I  desire  to  lay  it  upon 
your  hearts,  dear  brethren,  that  every  Christian  man 
has  received  and  possesses  through  the  open  door  of  his 
faith,  a  life  supernatural,  born  of  God,  kindred  with 
God,  therefore  having  nothing  kindred  with  evil,  and 
therefore  capable  of  meeting  and  mastering  all  the 
temptations  of  the  world. 

It  is  a  plain  piece  of  common-sense,  that  God  is 
stronger  than  this  material  universe,  and  that  what  is 
born  of  God  partakes  of  the  Divine  strength.  But  there 
would  be  no  comfort  in  that,  nor  would  it  be  anything 
germane  and  relevant  to  the  Apostle's  purpose,  unless 
there  was  implied  in  the  statement  what  in  fact  is  dis- 
tinctly asserted  more  than  once  in  this  Epistle,  that 
every  Christian  man  and  woman  may  claim  to  be  thus 
born  of  God.     Hearken  to  the  words  that  almost  im- 


8  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

mediately  precede  our  text,  '  Whosoever  believeth  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  born  of  God.'  Hearken  to  other 
words  which  proclaim  the  same  truth,  *To  as  many  as 
received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God,  which  were  born,  not  of  the  will  of  the 
flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God.'  He  does  come 
with  all  the  might  of  His  regenerating  power  into  our 
poor  natures,  if  and  when  we  turn  ourselves  with 
humble  faith  to  that  dear  Lord  ;  and  breathes  into  our 
deadness  a  new  life,  with  new  tastes,  new  desires,  new 
motives,new  powers.making  us  able  to  wrestle  with  and 
to  overcome  the  temptations  that  were  too  strong  for  us. 

Mystical  and  deep  as  this  thought  may  be,  God's 
nature  is  breathed  into  the  spirits  of  men  that  will 
trust  Him !  and  if  you  will  put  your  confidence  in  that 
dear  Lord,  and  live  near  Him,  into  your  weakness  will 
come  an  energy  born  of  the  Divine,  and  you  will  be 
able  to  do  all  things  in  the  might  of  the  Christ  that 
strengthens  you  from  within,  and  is  the  life  of  your 
life,  and  the  soul  of  your  soul.  To  the  little  beleaguered 
garrison  surrounded  by  strong  enemies  through  whom 
they  cannot  cut  their  way,  the  king  sends  reliefs,  who 
force  their  passage  into  the  fortress,  and  hold  it  against 
all  the  power  of  the  foe.  You  are  not  left  to  fight  by 
yourselves,  you  can  conquer  the  world  if  you  will  trust 
to  that  Christ,  trusting  in  whom  God's  own  power  will 
come  to  your  aid,  and  God's  own  Spirit  will  be  the 
strength  of  your  spirit. 

And  then  there  is  the  other  way  of  looking  at  this 
same  thing,  viz.,  you  can  conquer  the  world  if  you  will 
trust  in  Jesus  Christ,  because  such  trust  will  bring  you 
into  constant,  living,  loving  contact  with  the  Great 
Conqueror.  There  is  a  beautiful  accuracy  and  refine- 
ment in  the  language  of  these  three  clauses  which  is 


V.4]  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD  9 

not  represented  in  our  Authorised  Version.  The  cen- 
tral one  which  I  have  read  as  my  text  this  morning 
might  be  translated  as  it  is  translated  in  the  Revised 
Version — •  This  is  the  victory  that  hath  overcome  the 
world,  even  our  faith.'  By  which  I  suppose  the  Apostle 
means  very  much  what  I  am  saying  now,  viz.,  that  my 
faith  brings  me  into  contact  with  that  one  great 
victory  over  the  world  which  for  all  time  was  won  by 
Jesus  Christ.  I  can  appropriate  Christ's  conquest  to 
myself  if  I  trust  Him.  The  might  of  it  and  some 
portion  of  the  reality  of  it  passes  into  my  nature  in  the 
measure  in  which  I  rely  upon  Him.  He  conquered 
once  for  all,  and  the  very  remembrance  of  His  conquest 
by  faith  will  make  me  strong — will  '  teach  my  hands  to 
war  and  my  fingers  to  fight.'  He  conquered  once  for 
all,  and  His  victory  will  pass,  with  electric  power,  into 
my  life  if  I  trust  Him.  I  am  brought  into  living 
fellowship  with  Him.  All  the  stimulation  of  example, 
and  all  that  lives  lofty  and  pure  can  do  for  us,  is  done 
for  us  in  transcendent  fashion  by  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And  all  that  lives  lofty  and  pure  can  never  do 
for  us  is  done  in  unique  fashion  by  the  life  and  death 
of  Him  whose  life  and  death  are  alike  the  victory  over 
the  world  and  the  pattern  for  us. 

So  if  we  join  ourselves  to  Him  by  faith,  and  bring 
into  our  daily  life,  in  all  its  ignoble  effort,  in  all  its 
little  duties,  in  all  its  wearisome  monotonies,  in  all  its 
triviality,  the  thought,  the  illuminating  thought,  the 
ennobling  thought,  of  the  victorious  Christ  our  com- 
panion and  our  Friend — in  hoc  signo  vinces — in  this  sign 
thou  shalt  conquer  !  They  that  keep  hold  of  His  hand 
see  over  the  world  and  all  its  falsenesses  and  fleeting- 
nesses. They  that  trust  in  Jesus  are  more  than  con- 
querors by  the  might  of  His  victory. 


10  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

And  then  there  is  the  last  thought,  which,  though  it 
be  not  directly  expressed  in  the  words  before  us,  is  yet 
closely  connected  with  them.  You  can  conquer  the 
world  if  you  will  trust  Jesus  Christ,  because  your  faith 
will  bring  into  the  midst  of  your  lives  the  grandest  and 
most  solemn  and  blessed  realities.  Faith  is  the  true 
anaesthesia  of  the  soul ; — the  thing  that  deadens  it  to 
the  pains  and  the  pleasures  that  come  from  this  fleet- 
ing life.  As  for  the  pleasures,  I  remember  reading 
lately  of  some  thinker  of  our  own  land  who  was  gazing 
through  a  telescope  at  the  stars,  and  turned  away  from 
the  solemn  vision  with  one  remark, — •  I  don't  think 
much  of  our  county  families ! '  And  if  you  will  look 
up  at  Christ  through  the  telescope  of  your  faith,  it 
is  wonderful  what  Lilliputians  the  Brobdingnagians 
round  about  you  will  dwindle  into,  and  how  small  the 
world  will  look,  and  how  coarse  the  pleasures. 

If  a  man  goes  to  Italy,  and  lives  in  the  presence  of 
the  pictures  there,  it  is  marvellous  what  daubs  the 
works  of  art,  that  he  used  to  admire,  look  when  he 
comes  back  to  England  again.  And  if  he  has  been  in 
communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  has  found  out  what 
real  sweetness  is,  he  will  not  be  over-tempted  by  the 
coarse  dainties  that  people  eat  here.  Children  spoil 
their  appetites  for  wholesome  food  by  sweetmeats ;  we 
very  often  do  the  same  in  regard  to  the  bread  of  God, 
but  if  we  have  once  really  tasted  it,  we  shall  not  care 
very  much  for  the  vulgar  dainties  on  the  world's  stall. 

Dear  brethren,  set  your  faith  upon  that  great  Lord, 
and  the  world's  pleasures  will  have  less  power  over 
you,  and  as  for  its  pains — 

'  There 's  nothing  either  good  or  bad, 
But  thinking  makes  it  so.' 

If  a  man  does  not  think  that  the  world's  pains  are  of 


V.4]  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD  11 

much  account,  they  are  not  of  much  account.  He  who 
Bees  athwart  the  smoke  of  the  fire  of  Smithfield,  the 
face  of  the  Captain  of  his  warfare,  who  has  conquered, 
will  dare  to  burn  and  will  not  dare  to  deny  his  Master 
or  his  Master's  truth.  The  world  may  threaten  in  hope 
of  winning  you  to  its  service,  but  if  its  threats,  turned 
into  realities,  fail  to  move  you,  it  is  the  world  which 
inflicts,  and  not  you  who  suffer,  that  is  beaten.  In  the 
extremest  case  they  •  kill  the  body  and  after  that  have 
no  more  that  they  can  do,'  and  if  they  have  done  all 
they  can,  and  have  not  succeeded  in  wringing  the  in- 
cantation from  the  locked  lips,  they  are  beaten,  and 
the  poor  dead  martyr  that  they  could  only  kill  has 
conquered  them  and  their  torments.  So  fear  not  all 
that  the  world  can  do  against  you.  If  you  have  got  a 
little  spark  of  the  light  of  Christ's  presence  in  your 
heart,  the  darkness  will  not  be  very  terrible,  and  you 
will  not  be  alone. 

So,  brethren,  two  questions : — Does  your  faith  do 
anything  like  that  for  you  ?  If  it  does  not,  what  do 
you  think  is  the  worth  of  it?  Does  it  deaden  the 
world's  delights  ?  Does  it  lift  you  above  them  ?  Does 
it  make  you  conqueror  ?  If  it  does  not,  do  you  think 
it  is  worth  calling  faith  ? 

And  the  other  question  is :  Do  you  want  to  beat,  or 
to  be  beaten  ?  When  you  consult  your  true  self,  does 
your  conscience  not  tell  you  that  it  were  better  for  you 
to  keep  God's  commandments  than  to  obey  the  world  ? 
Surely  there  are  many  young  men  and  women  in  this 
place  to-day  who  have  some  desires  high,  and  true, 
and  pure,  though  often  stifled,  and  overcome,  and 
crushed  down ;  and  many  older  folk  who  have 
glimpses,  in  the  midst  of  predominant  regard  for  the 
things  that  are  seen  and  temporal,  of  a  great  calm, 


12  I.  JOHN  [cH.v. 

pure  region  away  up  there  that  they  know  very  little 
about. 

Dear  friends,  my  one  word  to  you  all  is :  Get  near 
Jesus  Christ  by  thought,  and  love,  and  trust.  Trust  to 
Him  and  to  the  great  love  that  gave  itself  for  you. 
And  then  bring  Him  into  your  life,  by  daily  reference 
to  Him  of  it  all :  and  by  cultivating  the  habit  of  think- 
ing about  Him  as  being  present  with  you  in  the  midst 
of  it  all,  and  so  holding  His  hand,  you  will  share  in  His 
victory ;  and  at  the  last,  according  to  the  climax  of 
His  sevenfold  promises,  *  To  Him  that  overcometh  will 
I  give  to  sit  down  with  Me  on  My  throne,  even  as  I  also 
overcame,  and  am  sat  down  with  My  Father  on  His 
Throne.' 


I.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES 

*  We  know  that  whosoever  is  born  of  God  sinneth  not ;  but  he  that  is  begotten 
of  God  keepeth  himself,  and  that  wicked  one  toucheth  him  not.'— 1  John  v.  18. 

John  closes  his  letter  with  a  series  of  triumphant  cer- 
tainties, which  he  considers  as  certified  to  every  Chris- 
tian by  his  own  experience.  *  We  know  that  whosoever 
is  born  of  God  sinneth  not  .  .  .  we  know  that  we  are  of 
God  .  .  .  and  we  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come.' 
Now,  that  knowledge  which  he  thus  follows  out  on 
these  three  lines  is  not  merely  an  intellectual  convic- 
tion, but  it  is  the  outcome  of  life,  and  the  broad  seal  of 
experimental  possession  is  stamped  upon  it.  Yet  the 
average  Christian  reads  this  text,  and  shrugs  his 
shoulders  and  says,  'Well!  perhaps  I  do  not  under- 
stand it,  but,  so  far  as  I  do,  it  seems  to  me  to  say  a 
thing  which  is  contradicted  by  the  whole  experience  of 
life.'  *  We  know  that  whosoever  is  born  of  God  sinneth 
not';   and  some  of  us  are  driven  by  such  words,  and 


V.18]    I.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES    13 

parallel  ones  which  occur  in  other  places,  to  a  pre- 
sumptuous over-confidence,  and  some  of  us  to  an 
equally  unscriptural  despondency ;  and  a  great  many 
of  us  to  laying  John's  triumphant  certainty  up  upon 
the  shelf  where  the  unintelligible  things  are  getting 
covered  over  with  dust. 

So  I  wish,  in  this  sermon,  to  try,  if  I  can,  to  come  to 
the  understanding,  that  in  some  measure  I  may  help 
you  to  come  to  the  joyful  possession,  of  the  truth  which 
lies  here,  and  which  the  Apostle  conceives  to  belong  to 
the  very  elements  of  the  Christian  character. 

I.  First,  then,  I  ask  the  question — of  whom  is  the 
Apostle  speaking  here  ? 

'  We  know  that  whosoever  is  born  of  God ' — or,  as  the 
Revised  Version  reads  it,  '  begotten  of  God ' — *  sinneth 
not.'  Now  we  must  go  back  a  little — and  sometimes  to 
go  a  long  way  from  a  subject  is  the  best  way  to  get  at 
it.  Let  me  recall  to  you  the  Master's  words  with  which 
He  all  but  began  His  public  miniistry,  when  He  said  to 
Nicodemus,  '  Except  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God.'  There  is  the  root  of  all  that  this 
epistle  is  so  full  of,  the  conception  of  a  regeneration,  a 
being  born  again,  which  makes  men,  by  a  new  birth, 
sons  of  God,  in  a  fashion  and  in  a  sphere  of  their  nature 
in  which  they  were  not  the  sons  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  before  that  experience.  Jesus  Christ  laid 
down,  as  the  very  first  principle  which  He  would  insist 
upon,  to  a  man  who  was  groping  in  the  midst  of  mere 
legal  conceptions  of  righteousness  as  the  work  of  his 
own  hands,  this  principle, — there  must  be  a  radical 
change,  and  there  must  be  the  entrance  into  every 
human  nature  of  a  new  life-principle  before  there  is 
any  vision,  any  possession  of,  or  any  entrance  into, 
that  region  in  which  the  will  of  God  is  supreme,  and 


14  I.  JOHN  [cH.v. 

where  He  reigns  and  rules  as  King.  John  is  only 
echoing  his  Master  when  he  here,  and  in  other  places 
of  this  letter,  lays  all  the  stress,  in  regard  to  practical 
righteousness  and  to  noble  character,  upon  being  born 
again,  subjected  to  that  change  which  is  fairly  par- 
alleled with  the  physical  fact  of  birth,  and  has,  as  its 
result,  the  possession  by  the  man  who  passes  through 
it  of  a  new  nature,  sphered  in  and  destined  to  dominate 
and  cleanse  his  old  self. 

Then  there  is  a  further  step  to  be  taken,  and  that  is 
that  this  sonship  of  God,  which  is  the  result  of  being 
born  again,  is  mediated  and  received  by  us  through  our 
faith.  Remember  the  prologue  of  John's  Gospel,  where, 
as  a  great  musician  will  hint  all  his  subsequent  themes 
in  his  overture,  he  gathers  up  in  one  all  the  main 
threads  and  points  of  his  teaching.  There  he  says,  *  To 
as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to 
become  the  sons  of  God.'  Long  years  afterwards,  when 
an  old  man  in  Ephesus,  he  writes  down  in  this  last 
chapter  of  his  first  epistle  the  same  truth  which  he 
there  set  blazing  in  the  forefront  of  his  Gospel  when  he 
says,  in  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter,  •  Whosoever 
believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  born  of  God.'  On 
condition,  then,  of  a  man's  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  there 
is  communicated  to  him  a  new  life  direct  from  God, 
kindred  with  the  Divine,  and  which  dwells  in  him,  and 
works  in  him  precisely  in  the  measure  of  his  personal 
faith.  That  is  the  first  point  that  I  desire  to 
establish. 

You  will  remember,  I  suppose,  that  this  same  concep- 
tion of  the  deepest  result  of  the  Christian  faith  being 
no  mere  external  forgiveness  of  sins,  nor  alteration  of 
a  man's  position  in  reference  to  the  Divine  judgments, 
but  the  communication  of  a  new  life-power  and  prin- 


V.18]    I.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES     15 

ciple  to  him,  is  not  the  property  of  the  mystic  John 
only,  but  it  is  the  property  likewise  of  the  legal  James, 
who  says,  *  Of  His  own  will  begat  He  us  by  the  word  of 
truth,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  His 
creatures ';  and  it  is  set  forth  with  great  emphasis  and 
abundance  in  all  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  who 
insists  that  we  are  sons  through  the  Son,  who  insists 
that  the  gift  of  God  is  a  new  nature,  formed  in  righ- 
teousness '  after  the  image  of  Him  that  created  Him,' 
and  who  is  ever  dwelling  upon  the  necessity  that  this 
new  nature  should  be  cultivated  and  increased  by  the 
faith  and  effort  of  its  recipient. 

Keeping  these  things  in  mind,  I  take  the  second  step, 
and  that  is  that  this  new  birth,  and  the  new  Divine  life 
which  is  its  result,  co-exist  along  with  the  old  nature 
in  which  it  is  planted,  and  which  it  has  to  coerce  and 
subdue,  sometimes  to  crucify,  and  always  to  govern. 
For  I  need  not  remind  you  that  if  the  analogy  of  birth 
is  to  be  followed,  we  have  to  recognise  that  that  Divine 
life,  too,  like  the  physical  life,  which  is  also  God's  gift, 
has  to  pass  through  stages ;  and  that  just  as  the  perfect 
man,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  '  increased  in  wisdom 
and  stature,  and  in  favour  with  God  and  man,'  so  the 
Divine  life  in  a  soul  comes  to  it  in  germ,  and  has  its 
period  of  infancy  and  growth  up  into  youth  and  man- 
hood. This  Apostle  puts  great  emphasis  upon  that  idea 
of  advancement  in  the  Divine  life.  For  you  remember 
the  long  passage  in  which  he  twice  reiterates  the 
notion  of  the  stages  of  children  and  young  men  and 
fathers.  So  the  new  life  has  to  grow,  grow  in  its  own 
strength,  grow  in  its  sphere  of  influence,  grow  in  the 
power  with  which  it  purges  and  hallows  the  old  nature 
in  the  midst  of  which  it  is  implanted.  But  growth  is 
not  the  only  word  for  its  development.     That  new 


16  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

nature  has  to  fight  for  its  life.  There  must  be  effort, 
in  order  that  it  may  rule ;  there  must  be  strenuous  and 
continuous  diligence,  directed  not  only  to  strengthen 
it,  but  to  weaken  its  antagonist,  in  order  that  it  may 
spread  and  permeate  the  whole  nature.  Thus  we  have 
the  necessary  foundation  laid  for  that  which  charac- 
terises the  Christian  life,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end,  that  it  is  a  working  out  of  that  which  is  implanted, 
a  working  out,  with  ever  widening  area  of  influence, 
and  a  working  in  with  ever  deeper  and  more  thorough 
power  of  transforming  the  character.  There  may  be 
indefinite  approximation  to  the  entire  suppression  and 
sanctification  of  the  old  man ;  and  whatsoever  is  born 
of  God  manifests  its  Divine  kindred  in  this,  that  sooner 
or  later  it  overcomes  the  world. 

Now,  if  all  that  which  I  have  been  saying  is  true — 
and  to  me  it  is  undeniably  so — I  come  to  a  very  plain 
answer  to  the  first  question  that  I  raised :  Who  is  it 
that  John  is  speaking  about  ?  *  Whosoever  is  born  of 
God '  is  the  Christian  man,  in  so  far  as  the  Divine  life 
which  he  has  from  God  by  fellowship  with  His  Son, 
through  His  own  personal  faith,  has  attained  the 
supremacy  in  Him.  The  Divine  nature  that  is  in  a  man 
is  that  which  is  born  of  God.  And  that  the  Apostle 
does  not  mean  the  man  in  whom  that  nature  is  im- 
planted, whether  he  is  true  to  the  nature  or  no,  is 
obvious  from  the  fact  that,  in  another  part  of  this 
same  chapter,  he  substitutes  '  whatsoever '  for  *  whoso- 
ever,* as  if  he  would  have  us  mark  that  the  thing  which 
he  declares  to  be  victorious  and  sinless  is  not  so  much 
the  person  as  the  power  that  is  lodged  in  the  person. 
That  is  my  answer  to  the  first  question. 

II.  What  is  asserted  about  this  Divine  life  ? 

*  Whosoever  is  born  of  God  sinneth  not.'    That  is  by 


V.18]    I.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES     17 

no  means  a  unique  expression  in  this  letter.  For,  to 
say  nothing  about  the  general  drift  of  it,  we  have  a 
precisely  similar  statement  in  a  previous  chapter,  twice 
uttered.  'Whosoever  abideth  in  Him  sinneth  not'; 
'whosoever  is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin,  for  His 
seed  remaineth  in  him,  and  he  cannot  sin,  because  he  is 
born  of  God.'  Nothing  can  be  stronger  than  that. 
Yes,  and  nothing  can  be  more  obvious.  I  think,  then, 
that  the  Apostle  does  not  thereby  mean  to  declare  that, 
unless  a  man  is  absolutely  sinless  in  regard  of  his 
individual  acts,  he  has  not  that  Divine  life  in  him.  For 
look  at  what  precedes  our  text.  Just  before  he  has 
said,  and  it  is  the  saying  which  leads  him  to  my  text, 
*If  any  man  seeth  his  brother  sin  a  sin  which  is  not 
unto  death,  he  shall  ask,  and  he  shall  give  him  life.' 
So,  then,  he  contemplated  that  within  the  circle  of 
sons  of  God,  who  were  each  other's  brethren  because 
they  were  all  possessors  of  that  Divine  birth,  there 
would  exist  'sin  not  unto  death,'  which  demanded  a 
brother's  brotherly  intercession  and  help.  And  do  you 
suppose  that  any  man,  in  the  very  same  breath  in 
which  he  thus  declared  that  brotherhood  was  to  be 
manifested  by  the  way  in  which  we  help  a  brother  to 
get  rid  of  his  sins,  would  have  stultified  himself  by  a 
blank,  staring  contradiction  such  as  has  been  extracted 
from  the  words  of  my  text  ?  I  say  nothing  about  in- 
spiration; I  only  say  common-sense  forbids  it.  The 
fact  of  the  matter  is  that  John,  in  his  simple,  childlike 
way,  does  not  wait  to  concatenate  his  ideas,  or  to  show 
how  the  one  limits  and  explains  the  other,  but  he  lays 
them  down  before  us,  and  the  fact  of  their  juxtaposi- 
tion limits,  and  he  does  not  expect  that  his  readers  are 
quite  fools.  So  he  says  in  the  one  breath,  '  If  any  man 
see  his  brother  sin  a  sin,' and  in  the  next  breath, '  Who- 

B 


18  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

soever  is  born  of  God  sinneth  not.'  Surely  there  is  a 
way  to  bring  these  two  sayings  into  harmony.  And  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  way  that  I  have  been  suggesting 
to  you — viz.,  to  take  the  text  to  mean — not  that  a  Chris- 
tian is,  or  must  be,  in  order  to  vindicate  his  right  to  be 
called  a  Christian,  sinless,  but  that  there  is  a  power  in 
him,  a  life-principle  in  him  which  is  sinless,  and  what- 
soever in  him  is  born  of  God  overcometh  the  world 
and  '  sinneth  not.' 

Now,  then,  that  seems  to  me  to  be  the  extent  of  the 
Apostle's  affirmation  here ;  and  I  desire  to  draw  two 
plain,  practical  conclusions.  One  is,  that  this  notion  of 
a  Divine  life-power,  lodged  in,  and  growing  through, 
and  fighting  with  the  old  nature,  makes  the  hideous- 
ness  and  the  criminality  of  a  Christian  man's  trans- 
gressions more  hideous  and  more  criminal.  The 
teaching  of  my  text  has  sometimes  been  used  in  the 
very  opposite  direction.  I  do  not  need  to  say  anything 
about  that.  There  have  been  people  that  have  said 
•  It  is  no  more  /,  but  sin,  that  dwelleth  in  me ;  /  am 
not  responsible.'  There  have  been  types  of  so-called 
Christianity  which  have  used  this  loftiest  and  purest 
thought  of  my  text  as  a  minister  of  sin.  I  do  not  sup- 
pose that  there  are  any  representatives  of  that  carica- 
ture and  travesty  here,  so  I  need  not  say  a  word  about 
it.  The  opposite  inference  is  what  I  urge  now.  In 
addition  to  all  the  other  foulnesses  which  attach  to 
any  man's  lust,  or  lechery,  or  drunkenness,  or  ambition, 
or  covetousness,  this  super-eminent  brand  and  stigma 
is  burned  in  upon  yours  and  mine,  Christian  men  and 
women,  that  it  is  dead  against,  absolutely  inconsistent 
with,  the  principle  of  life  that  is  bedded  within  us. 
And  whilst  all  men,  by  every  transgression,  flout  God 
and  degrade  themselves,  the  Christian  man  who  comes 


V.18]   I.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES    19 

down  to  the  level  of  living  for  flesh  and  sense  and  time 
and  self,  has  laid  the  additional  and  heaviest  of  all 
weights  of  guilt  upon  his  back  in  that  he  has  done 
despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace,  and  grieved  and  contra- 
dicted and  thwarted  the  life  of  God  that  is  within 
him.  The  deepest  guilt  and  the  darkest  condemnation 
attach  to  the  sins  of  the  man  who,  with  a  Divine  life  in 
his  spirit,  obeys  the  flesh.  '  To  whomsoever  much  is 
given,  of  him  shall  much  be  required.' 

Another  consideration  may  fairly  be  urged  as  drawn 
from  this  text,and  that  is  that  the  one  task  of  Christians 
ought  to  be  to  deepen  and  to  strengthen  the  life  of 
God,  which  is  in  their  souls,  by  faith.  There  is  no  limit, 
except  one  of  my  own  making,  to  the  extent  to  which 
my  whole  being  may  be  penetrated  through  and 
through  and  ruled  absolutely  by  that  new  life  which 
God  has  given. 

•  'Tis  life,  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
Oh  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant ; 
More  life,  and  better,  that  I  want.' 

It  is  all  very  well  to  cultivate  specific  and  sporadic 
virtues  and  graces.  Get  a  firmer  hold  and  a  fuller  pos- 
session of  the  life  of  Christ  in  your  own  souls,  and  all 
graces  and  virtues  will  come. 

Iir.  Now,  I  have  one  last  question — what  is  the 
ground  of  John's  assertion  about  him  'that  is  born 
of  God'? 

My  text  runs  on,  'but  he  that  is  begotten  of  God 
keepeth  himself.'  If  any  of  you  are  using  the  Revised 
Version,  you  will  see  a  change  there,  small  in  extent, 
but  large  in  significance.  It  reads,  *  He  that  is  begotten 
of  God  keepeth  him.'  And  although  at  this  stage  of 
my  sermon  it  would  be  absurd  in  me  to  enter  upon 
exegetical  considerations,  let  me  just  say  in  a  sentence 


20  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

that  the  original  has  considerable  variation  in  expres- 
sion in  these  two  clauses,  which  variation  makes  it 
impossible,  I  think,  to  adopt  the  idea  contained  in  the 
Authorised  Version,  that  the  same  person  is  referred 
to  in  both  clauses.  The  difference  is  this.  In  the  first 
clause,  *  He  that  is  begotten  of  God '  is  the  Christian 
man ;  in  the  second,  '  He  that  is  begotten  of  God '  is 
Christ  the  Saviour. 

There  is  the  guarantee  that  •  Whosoever  is  begotten 
of  God  sinneth  not,'  because  round  his  weakness  is 
cast  the  strong  defence  of  the  Elder  Brother's  hand ; 
and  the  Son  of  God  keeps  all  the  sons  who,  through 
Him,  have  derived  into  their  natures  the  life  of  God. 
If,  then,  they  are  kept  by  the  only  begotten  Son  of  the 
Father,  who,  that  •  He  might  bring  many  sons  unto 
glory,'  has  Himself  worn  the  likeness  of  our  flesh  apart 
from  sin,  then  the  one  thing  for  us  to  do,  in  order 
to  nourish  and  deepen  and  strengthen,  and  bring  to 
sovereign  power  in  our  poor  natures  that  previous  and 
enduring  principle  of  life,  is  to  take  care  that  we  do  not 
run  away  from  the  keeping  hand  nor  wander  far  from 
the  only  safety.  When  a  little  child  is  sent  out  for  a 
walk  by  the  parent  with  an  elder  brother,  if  it  goes 
staring  into  shop  windows,  and  gaping  at  anything 
that  it  sees  upon  the  road,  and  loses  hold  of  the 
brother's  hand,  it  is  lost,  and  breaks  into  tears,  and  can 
only  be  consoled  and  secured  by  being  brought  back. 
Then  the  little  fingers  clasp  round  the  larger  hand,  and 
there  is  a  sense  of  relief  and  of  safety. 

Dear  brethren,  if  we  stray  away  from  Christ  we  lose 
ourselves  in  muddy  ways.  If  we  keep  near  Him,  as 
merchantmen  in  time  of  war  keep  near  the  men-of-war 
convoy,  or  as  pilgrims  across  a  dangerous  desert  keep 
close  to  the  heels  of  the  horses  of  their  escort,  *  that 


V.18]  II.~TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  21 

wicked  one  toucheth  us  not.'  And  so  we  may  be  sure 
that '  that  which  is  born  of  God '  will  come  to  the  sove- 
reign power  within  us,  and  He  that  was  born  of  the 
Spirit  will  cast  out  him  that  was  born  of  the  flesh. 


II.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES 

'We  know  that  we  are  of  God,  and  the  whole  world  lieth  in  wickedness.'— 
1  John  v.  19. 

This  is  the  second  of  the  triumphant  certainties  which 
John  supposes  to  be  the  property  of  every  Christian. 
I  spoke  about  the  first  of  them  in  my  last  sermon.  It 
reads, '  We  know  that  whosoever  is  born  of  God  sin- 
neth  not.'  Now,  there  is  a  distinct  connection  and 
advance,  as  between  these  two  statements.  The  former 
of  them  is  entirely  general.  It  is  particularised  in  my 
text ;  the  '  whosoever  '  there  is  pointed  into  '  we '  here. 
The  individuals  who  have  the  right  to  claim  these  pre- 
rogatives are  none  other  than  the  body  of  Christian 
people. 

Then  there  is  another  connection  and  advance. 
*  Born  of  God '  refers  to  an  act ;  '  of  God '  to  a  state. 
The  point  is  produced  into  a  line.  There  is  still  another 
connection  and  advance.  '  Whosoever  is  born  of  God 
sinneth  not,'  '  and  that  wicked  one  toucheth  him  not.' 
That  glance  at  a  dark  surrounding,  from  which  he  that 
is  born  of  God  is  protected,  is  deepened  in  my  text 
into  a  vision  of  the  whole  world  as  'lying  in  the 
wicked  one.' 

Now,  I  know  that  sayings  like  this  of  my  text,  which 
put  into  the  forefront  the  Christian  prerogative,  and 
which  regard  mankind,  apart  from  the  members  of 
Christ's  body,  as  in  a  dark  condition  of  subjection  under 
an  alien  power,  have  often  been  spoken  of  as  if  they 


22  I.  JOHN  [OH.V. 

were  presumptuous,  on  the  one  hand,  and  narrow,  un- 
charitable, and  gloomy  on  the  other.  I  am  not  con- 
cerned to  deny  that,  on  the  lips  of  some  professing 
Christian,  they  have  had  a  very  ugly  sound,  and  have 
ministered  to  distinctly  un-Christlike  sentiments.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  I  do  believe  that  there  are  few  things 
which  the  average  Christianity  of  to-day  wants  more 
than  a  participation  in  that  joyous  confidence  and 
buoyant  energy  which  throb  in  the  Apostle's  words; 
and  that  for  lack  of  this  triumphant  certitude  many 
a  soul  has  been  lamed,  its  joy  clouded,  its  power  tram- 
melled, and  its  work  in  the  world  thwarted.  So  I  wish 
to  try  to  catch  some  of  that  solemn  and  joyous  con- 
fidence which  the  Apostle  peals  forth  in  these  trium- 
phant words. 

I.  I  ask  you,  then,  to  look  first  at  the  Christian 
certainty  of  belonging  to  God. 

•  We  know  that  we  are  of  God.'  Where  did  John  get 
that  form  of  expression,  which  crops  up  over  and  over 
again  in  his  letter?  He  got  it  where  he  got  most 
of  his  terminology,  from  the  lips  of  the  Master.  For, 
if  you  remember,  our  Lord  Himself  speaks  more  than 
once  of  men  being  *  of  God.'  As,  for  instance,  when 
He  says,  •  He  that  is  of  God  heareth  God's  words.  Ye 
therefore  hear  them  not  because  ye  are  not  of  God.' 
And  then  He  goes  on  to  give  the  primary  idea  that 
is  conveyed  in  the  phrase  when  He  says,  in  strong  con- 
trast to  that  expression,  '  Ye  are  of  your  father,  and 
the  lusts  of  your  father  ye  will  do.'  So,  then,  plainly, 
as  I  said,  what  was  a  point  in  the  previous  certitude,  is 
here  prolonged  into  a  line,  and  expresses  a  permanent 
state. 

The  first  conception  in  the  phrase  is  that  of  life 
derived,  communicated   from  God  Himself.     Fathers 


V.  19J  II.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  23 

of  the  flesh  communicate  life,  and  it  is  thenceforth 
independent.  But  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  which  we 
draw  from  God,  is  only  sustained  by  the  continual 
repetition  of  the  same  gift  by  which  it  was  originated. 
So  the  second  idea  that  lies  in  the  expression  is  that 
of  a  life  dependent  upon  Him  from  whom  it  originally 
comes.  The  better  life  in  the  Christian  soul  is  as 
certain  to  fade  and  die  if  the  supply  from  Heaven  is 
cut  off  or  dammed  back,  as  is  the  bed  of  a  stream  to 
become  parched  and  glistering  in  the  fierce  sunshine, 
if  the  head-waters  flow  into  it  no  more.  You  can  no 
more  have  the  life  of  the  Spirit  in  the  spirit  of  a  man 
without  continual  communication  from  Him  than  a 
sunbeam  can  subsist  if  it  be  cut  off  from  the  central 
source.  Therefore,  the  second  of  the  ideas  in  this 
expression  is,  the  continual  dependence  of  that  derived 
life  upon  God.  Christian  people  are  '  of  God,'  in  so  far 
as  they  partake  of  that  new  life,  in  an  altogether 
special  sense,  which  has  a  feeble  analogy  in  the  depend- 
ence of  all  creation  upon  the  continual  effluence  of  the 
Divine  power.  Preservation  is  a  continual  creation, 
and  unless  God  operated  in  all  physical  phenomena 
and  change  there  would  neither  be  phenomena,  nor 
change,  nor  substance,  which  could  show  them  forth. 
But  high  above  all  that  is  the  dependence  of  the 
renewed  soul  upon  Him  for  the  continual  communica- 
tion of  His  gifts  and  life. 

If  that  life  is  thus  derived  and  dependent,  there 
follows  the  last  idea  in  our  pregnant  phrase,  viz.,  that 
it  is  correspondent  with  its  source.  *  Ye  are  of  God,' 
kindred  with  Him  and  developing  a  life  which,  in  its 
measure,  being  derived  and  dependent,  is  cognate  with, 
and  assimilated  to.  His  own.  This  is  the  prerogative  of 
every  Christian  soul. 


24  I.  JOHN  ICH.V. 

Then  there  is  another  step  to  be  taken.  The  man  that 
has  that  life  knows  it.  '  We  know,'  says  the  Apostle, 
*  that  we  are  of  God.'  That  word  *  know '  has  been 
usurped,  or  at  all  events  illegitimately  monopolised  by 
certain  forms  of  knowledge.  But  surely  the  inward 
facts  of  my  own  consciousness  are  as  much  facts,  and 
are  certified  to  me  as  validly  and  reliably  as  are  facts 
in  other  regions  which  are  attested  by  the  senses,  or 
arrived  at  by  reasoning.  Christian  people  have  the 
same  right  to  lay  hold  of  that  great  word,  •  we  know,' 
and  to  apply  it  to  the  facts  of  their  spiritual  experience, 
as  any  scientist  in  the  world  has  to  apply  it  to  the 
facts  of  his  science.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  forget  the 
differences  between  the  two  kinds  of  knowledge,  but  I 
do  feel  that  in  regard  of  certitude  the  advantage  is  at 
least  shared,  and  some  of  us  would  say  that  we  are 
surer  of  ourselves  than  we  are  of  anything  besides. 
How  do  you  know  that  you  a?'e  at  all?  The  only 
answer  is,  *  I  feel  that  I  am.'  And  precisely  the  same 
evidence  applies  in  regard  to  these  lofty  thoughts  of  a 
Divine  kindred  and  a  spiritual  life.  I  know  that  I  am  of 
God.  I  have  passed  through  experiences,  and  I  am 
aware  of  consciousness  which  certify  that  to  me. 

But  that  is  not  all  For,  as  I  tried  to  show  in  my 
last  sermon,  the  condition  of  being  'born  of  God'  is 
laid  plainly  down  in  this  very  chapter  by  the  Apostle, 
as  being  the  simple  act  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  So, 
then,  if  any  man  is  sure  that  he  believes,  he  knows 
that  he  is  born  of  God,  and  is  of  God. 

But  you  say,  *Do  you  not  know  that  men  deceive 
themselves  by  a  profession  of  being  Christians,  and 
that  many  of  us  estimate  their  professions  at  a  very 
different  rate  of  genuineness  from  what  they  estimate 
them  at  ? '    Yes,  I  know  that.     And  this  whole  letter 


V.19]   II.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  25 

of  John  goes  to  guard  us  against  the  presumption  of 
entertaining  inflated  thoughts  about  ourselves  as  being 
kindred  with  God,  unless  we  verify  the  consciousness 
by  certain  plain  facts.  You  remember  how  continually 
in  this  epistle  there  crops  up  by  the  side  of  the  most 
thorough-going  mysticism,  as  people  call  it,  the 
plainest,  home-spun  practical  morality,  and  how  all 
these  lofty,  towering  thoughts  are  brought  down  to 
this  sharp  test,  '  Let  no  man  deceive  you ;  he  that 
doeth  not  righteousness  is  not  of  God  ;  neither  he  that 
loveth  not  his  brother.'  That  is  a  test  which,  applied 
to  many  a  fanatical  dream,  shrivels  it  up. 

There  is  another  test  which  the  Master  laid  down  in 
the  words  that  I  have  quoted  already  for  another 
purpose,  when  He  said,  'He  that  is  of  God  heareth 
God's  words.  Ye,  therefore,  hear  them  not  because  ye 
are  not  of  God.'  Christian  people,  take  these  two 
plain  tests — first,  righteousness  of  life,  common  prac- 
tical morality,  the  doing  and  the  loving  to  do,  the 
things  that  all  the  world  recognises  to  be  right  and 
true ;  and,  second,  an  ear  attuned  and  attent  to  catch 
God's  voice — and  control  your  consciousness  of  being 
God's  son  by  these,  and  you  will  not  go  far  wrong. 

And  now,  before  I  go  further,  one  word.  It  is  a 
shame,  and  a  laming  and  a  weakening  of  any  Christian 
life,  that  this  triumphant  confidence  should  not  be 
clear  in  it.  '  We  know  that  we  are  of  God.'  Can  you 
and  I  echo  that  with  calm  confidence?  'I  sometimes 
half  hope  that  I  am.'  '  I  am  almost  afraid  to  say  it.' 
'  I  do  not  know  whether  I  am  or  not.'  *I  trust  I  may 
be.'  That  is  the  kind  of  creeping  attitude  in  which 
hosts  of  Christian  people  are  contented  to  live;  and 
they  stare  at  a  man  as  if  he  was  presumptuous,  and 
soaring  up  into  a  region  that  they  do  not  know  any- 


26  I.  JOHN  [OH.V. 

thing  about,  when  he  humbly  echoes  the  Apostle,  and 
says,  '  "We  know  that  we  are  God's.'  Why  should  our 
skies  be  as  grey  and  sunless  as  those  of  a  northern 
winter's  day  when  all  the  while,  away  down  on  the 
sunny  seas,  to  which  we  may  voyage  if  we  will,  there 
are  unbroken  sunshine,  ethereal  blue,  and  a  perpetual 
blaze  of  light?  Christian  men  and  women  !  it  concerns 
the  power  of  your  lives,  their  progress  in  holiness,  and 
their  possession  of  peace,  that  you  should  be  far  more 
able  than,  alas !  many  of  us  are,  to  say,  and  that 
without  presumption,  *  We  know  that  we  are  of  God.' 

II.  We  have  here  the  Christian  view  of  the  surround- 
ing world. 

I  need  not,  I  suppose,  remind  you  that  John  learned 
from  Jesus  to  use  that  phrase  'the  world,*  not  as 
meaning  the  aggregate  of  material  things,  but  as 
meaning  the  aggregate  of  godless  men.  If  you  want  a 
modern  translation  of  the  word,  it  comes  very  near  a 
familiar  one  with  us  nowadays,  and  that  is  •  Society ' ; 
the  mass  of  people  that  are  not  of  God. 

Now,  the  more  a  man  is  conscious  that  he  himself,  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  has  passed  into  the  family  of  God, 
and  possesses  the  life  that  comes  from  Him,  the  more 
keen  will  be  his  sense  of  the  evil  that  lies  round  him, 
and  of  the  contrast  between  the  maxims  and  prevalent 
practices  and  institutions  and  ways  of  the  world,  and 
those  which  belong  to  Christ  and  Christ's  people.  Just 
as  a  native  of  Central  Africa,  brought  to  England  for 
a  while,  when  he  gets  back  to  his  kraal,  will  see  its 
foulnesses  and  its  sordidnesses  as  he  did  not  before,  or 
as,  according  to  old  stories,  those  that  were  carried 
away  into  fairyland  for  a  little  while  came  back  to  the 
work-a-day  life  of  the  world,  and  felt  themselves  alien 
from  it,  and  had  visions  of  what  they  had  seen  ever 


V.19]  II.—TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  27 

floating  before  them  ;  so  the  measure  of  our  conscious 
belonging  to  God  is  the  measure  of  our  perception  of 
the  contrast  between  us  and  the  ways  of  the  men 
about  us. 

I  am  not  concerned  for  a  moment  to  deny,  rather,  I 
most  thankfully  recognise  the  truth,  that  a  great  deal 
of  •  the  world '  has  been  ransomed  by  the  Cross,  by 
which  its  pjince  has  been  cast  out,  and  that  much  of 
Christian  morality,  and  of  the  Christian  way  of  looking 
at  things,  has  passed  into  the  general  atmosphere  in 
which  we  live,  so  as  that,  between  the  true  Christian 
community  and  the  surrounding  world  in  which  it  is 
plunged,  there  is  less  antagonism  than  there  was  when 
John  in  Ephesus  wrote  these  words  beneath  the  shadow 
of  Diana's  temple.  But  the  world  is  a  world  still,  and 
the  antagonism  is  there ;  and  if  a  man  will  live  true  to 
the  life  of  God  that  is  in  him,  he  will  find  out  soon 
enough  that  the  gulf  is  not  bridged  over.  It  never 
will  be  bridged.  The  only  way  by  which  the  anta- 
gonism can  be  ended  is  for  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
to  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  God  and  of  His  Christ. 
Society  is  not  of  God,  and  the  institutions  of  every 
nation  upon  earth  have  still  in  them  much  of  the  evil 
one.  Christian  people  are  set  down  in  the  midst  of 
these,  and  the  antagonism  is  perennial. 

III.  Lastly,  consider  the  consequent  Christian  duty. 

Let  me  put  two  or  three  plain  exhortations.  I 
beseech  you.  Christian  people,  cultivate  the  sense  of 
belonging  to  a  higher  order  than  that  in  which  you 
dwell.  A  man  in  a  heathen  land  loses  his  sense  of 
home,  and  of  its  ways ;  and  it  needs  a  perpetual  effort 
in  order  that  we  should  not  forget  our  true  affinities. 
'  We  are  of  God '  may  be  so  said  as  to  be  the  parent 
of  all  manner  of  un-Christlike  sentiments,  as  I  have 


28  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

already  remarked.  It  may  be  the  mother  of  contempt 
and  self-righteousness,  and  a  hundred  other  vices  ;  but, 
rightly  said,  it  has  no  such  tendency.  But  unless  we 
are  ever  and  anon  seeking  to  renew  that  consciousness, 
it  will  fade  and  become  dim,  and  we  shall  forget  the 
imperial  palace  whence  we  came,  and  be  content  to  live 
in  the  barren  fields  of  the  citizens  of  that  country,  and 
even  to  feed  upon  the  husks  that  are  in  the  swine's 
trough.  So  I  say,  cultivate  the  sense  of  belonging 
to  God. 

Again,  I  say,  be  careful  to  avoid  infection.  Go  as 
men  do  in  a  plague-stricken  city.  Go  as  our  soldiers  in 
that  Ashanti  expedition  had  to  go,  on  your  guard 
against  malaria,  the  *  pestilence  that  walkoth  in  dark- 
ness,' and  smites  ere  we  are  aware,  bringing  down  our 
notions,  our  views  of  life,  our  thoughts  of  duty,  to  the 
low  level  of  the  people  around  us.  Go  as  these  same 
soldiers  did,  on  the  watch  for  ambuscades  and  lurking 
enemies  behind  the  trees.  And  remember  that  the 
only  safety  is  keeping  hold  of  Christ's  hand. 

Look  on  the  world  as  Christ  looked  on  it.  There 
must  be  no  contempt ;  there  must  be  no  self-righteous- 
ness ;  there  must  be  no  pluming  ourselves  on  our  own 
prerogatives.  There  must  be  sorrow  caught  from  Him, 
and  tenderness  of  pity,  like  that  which  forced  itself 
to  His  eyes  as  He  gazed  across  the  valley  at  the  city 
sparkling  in  the  sunshine,  or  such  as  wrung  His  heart 
when  He  looked  upon  the  multitude  as  sheep  without 
a  shepherd. 

Work  for  the  deliverance  of  your  brethren  from  the 
alien  tyrant.  Notice  the  difference  between  the  two 
clauses  in  the  text.  *  We  are  of  God ' ;  that  is  a  per- 
manent relation.  '  The  world  lieth  in  the  wicked  one  * ; 
that  is  not  necessarily  a  permanent  relation.    The  world 


V.19]  III.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  29 

is  not  of  the  wicked  one  ;  it  is  '  m'  him,  and  that  may- 
be altered.  It  is  in  the  sphere  of  that  dark  influence. 
As  in  the  old  stories,  knights  hung  their  dishonoured 
arms  upon  trees,  and  laid  their  heads  in  the  lap  of  an 
enchantress,  so  men  have  departed  from  God,  and  sur- 
rendered themselves  to  the  fascinations  and  the  control 
of  an  alien  power.  But  the  world  may  be  taken  out  of 
the  sphere  of  influence  in  which  it  lies.  And  that  is 
what  you  are  here  for.  '  For  this  purpose  the  Son  of 
God  was  manifested,  that  He  might  destroy  the  works 
of  the  devil ' ;  and  for  that  purpose  He  has  called  us  to 
be  His  servants.  So  the  more  we  feel  the  sharp  con- 
trast between  the  blessedness  of  the  Divine  life  which 
we  believe  ourselves  to  possess,  and  the  darkness  and 
evils  of  the  world  that  lies  around  us,  the  more  should 
sorrow,  and  the  more  should  sympathy,  and  the  more 
should  succour  be  ours.  Brethren,  for  ourselves  let  us 
remember  that  we  cannot  better  help  the  world  to  get 
away  from  the  alien  tyrant  that  rules  it  than  by  walk- 
ing in  the  midst  of  men,  with  the  aureola  of  this  joyful 
confidence  and  certitude  around  us.  The  solemn  alter- 
native opens  before  every  one  of  us — Either  I  am  '  of 
God,'  or  I  am  '  in  the  wicked  one.'  Dear  friends,  let  us 
lay  our  hearts  and  hands  in  Christ's  care,  and  then  that 
will  be  true  of  us  which  this  Apostle  declares  for  the 
whole  body  of  believers  :  '  Ye  are  of  God,  little  children, 
and  have  overcome,  because  greater  is  He  that  is  in 
you  than  he  that  is  in  the  world.' 

III.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES 

'And  we  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given  us  an  understand- 
ing, that  we  may  know  Him  that  is  true,  and  we  are  in  Him  that  is  true,  even  in 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ.'— 1  John  v.  20. 

Once  more  John  triumphantly  proclaims  '  We  know.' 
Whole-souled  conviction  rings  in  his  voice.    He  is  sure 


30  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

of  his  footing.  He  does  not  say  •  "We  incline  to  think,' 
or  even  *  We  believe  and  firmly  hold,'  but  he  says  '  We 
know.'  A  very  different  tone  that  from  that  of  many 
of  us,  who,  influenced  by  currents  of  present  opinions, 
feel  as  if  what  was  rock  to  our  fathers  had  become 
quagmire  to  us !  But  John  in  his  simplicity  thinks 
that  it  is  a  tone  which  is  characteristic  of  every 
Christian.  I  wonder  what  he  would  say  about  some 
Christians  now. 

This  third  of  his  triumphant  certainties  is  connected 
closely  with  the  two  preceding  ones,  which  have  been 
occupying  us  in  former  sermons.  It  is  so,  as  being  in 
one  aspect  the  ground  of  these,  for  it  is  because  '  the 
Son  of  God  is  come '  that  men  are  born  of  God,  and 
are  of  Him.  It  is  so  in  another  way  also,  for  properly 
the  words  of  our  text  ought  to  read  not  •  And  we  know,' 
rather  '  But  we  know.'  They  are  suggested,  that  is  to 
say,  by  the  preceding  words,  and  they  present  the  only 
thought  which  makes  them  tolerable.  '  The  whole  world 
lieth  in  the  wicked  one.  But  we  know  that  the  Son  of 
God  is  come.'  Falling  back  on  the  certainty  of  the 
Incarnation  and  its  present  issues,  we  can  look  in  the 
face  the  grave  condition  of  humanity,  and  still  have  hope 
for  the  world  and  for  ourselves.  The  certainty  of  the 
Incarnation  and  its  issues,  I  say.  For  in  my  text  John 
not  only  points  to  the  past  fact  that  Christ  has  come  in 
the  flesh,  but  to  a  present  fact,  the  operation  of  that 
Christ  upon  Christian  souls — 'He  hath  given  us  an 
understanding.'  And  not  only  so,  but  he  points,  further, 
to  a  dwelling  in  God  and  God  in  us  as  being  the  abiding 
issue  of  that  past  manifestation.  So  these  three  things 
— the  coming  of  Christ,  the  knowledge  of  God  which 
flows  into  a  believing  heart  through  that  Incarnate  Son, 
and  the  dwelling  in  God  which  is  the  climax  of  all  His 


V.20]  III.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  81 

gifts  to  us — these  three  things  are  in  John's  estimation 
certified  to  a  Christian  heart,  and  are  not  merely 
matters  of  opinion  and  faith,  but  matters  of  knowledge. 

Ah  !  brethren,  if  our  Christianity  had  that  firm  strain, 
and  was  conscious  of  that  verification,  it  would  be  less 
at  the  mercy  of  every  wind  of  doctrine ;  it  would  be  less 
afraid  of  every  new  thought ;  it  would  be  more  powerful 
to  rule  and  to  calm  our  own  spirits,  and  it  would  be 
more  mighty  to  utter  persuasive  words  to  others.  We 
must  know  for  ourselves,  if  we  would  lead  others  to 
believe.  So  I  desire  to  look  now  at  these  three  points 
which  emerge  from  my  text,  and 

I.  I  would  deal  with  the  Christian's  knowledge  that 
the  Son  of  God  is  come. 

Now,  our  Apostle  is  writing  to  Asiatic  Christians  of 
the  second  generation  at  the  earliest,  most  of  whom  had 
not  been  born  when  Jesus  Christ  was  upon  earth,  and 
none  of  whom  had  any  means  of  acquaintance  with  Him 
except  that  which  we  possess — the  testimony  of  the 
witnesses  who  had  companied  with  Him.  And  yet,  to 
these  men — whose  whole  contact  with  Christ  and  the 
Gospel  was,  like  yours  and  mine,  the  result  of  hearsay 
— he  says,  '  We  know.'  Was  he  misusing  words  in  his 
eagerness  to  find  a  firm  foundation  for  a  soul  to  rest  on  ? 
Many  would  say  that  he  was,  and  would  answer  this 
certainty  of  his  'We  know,'  with.  How  can  he  know? 
You  may  go  on  the  principle  that  probability  is  the 
guide  of  life,  and  you  may  be  morally  certain,  but  the 
only  way  by  which  you  know  a  fact  is  by  having  seen 
it ;  and  even  if  you  have  seen  Jesus  Christ,  all  that  you 
saw  would  be  the  life  of  a  man  upon  earth  whom  you 
believed  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  trifling  with 
language  to  talk  about  knowledge  when  you  have  only 
testimony  to  build  on. 


32  I.  JOHN  [cH.v. 

Well !  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  on  that  side, 
but  there  are  two  or  three  considerations  which,  I 
think,  amply  warrant  the  Apostle's  declaration  here, 
and  our  understanding  of  his  words,  'We  know,'  in 
their  fullest  and  deepest  sense.  Let  me  just  mention 
these  briefly.  Remember  that  when  John  says  '  The 
Son  of  God  is  come '  he  is  not  speaking — as  his  language, 
if  any  of  you  can  consult  the  original,  distinctly  shows 
— about  a  past  fact  only,  but  about  a  fact  which,  be- 
ginning in  a  historical  past,  is  permanent  and  con- 
tinuous. In  one  aspect,  no  doubt,  Jesus  Christ  had 
come  and  gone,  before  any  of  the  people  to  whom  this 
letter  was  addressed  heard  it  for  the  first  time,  but  in 
another  aspect,  if  I  may  use  a  colloquial  expression, 
when  Jesus  Christ  came,  He  '  came  to  stay.'  And  that 
thought,  of  the  permanent  abiding  with  men,  of  the 
Christ  who  once  was  manifest  in  the  flesh  for  thirty 
years,  and 

•  Walked  the  acres  of  those  blessed  fields 
For  our  advantage,' 

runs  through  the  whole  of  Scripture.  Nor  shall  we 
understand  the  meaning  of  Christ's  Incarnation  unless 
we  see  in  it  the  point  of  beginning  of  a  permanent 
reality.  He  has  come,  and  He  has  not  gone — 'Lo!  I 
am  with  you  alway' — and  that  thought  of  the  fulness 
and  permanence  of  our  Lord's  presence  with  Christian 
souls  is  lodged  deep  and  all-pervading,  not  only  in  John's 
gospel,  but  in  the  whole  teaching  of  the  New  Testament. 
So  it  is  a  present  fact,  and  not  only  a  past  piece  of 
history,  which  is  asserted  when  the  Apostle  says  '  The 
Son  of  God  is  come.'  And  a  man  who  has  a  companion 
knows  that  he  has  him,  and  by  many  a  token  not  only 
of  flesh  but  of  spirit,  is  conscious  that  he  is  not  alone, 


V.20]  III.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  33 

but  that  the  dear  and  strong  one  is  by  his  side.  Such 
consciousness  belongs  to  all  the  maturer  and  deeper 
forms  of  the  Christian  life. 

Further,  we  must  read  on  in  my  text  if  we  are  to  find 
all  which  John  declares  to  be  a  matter  of  knowledge. 
'  The  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given  us  an  under- 
standing.' I  shall  have  a  word  or  two  more  to  say  about 
that  presently,  but  in  the  meantime  I  simply  point  out 
that  what  is  here  declared  to  be  known  by  the  Christian 
soul  is  a  present  operation  of  the  present  Christ  upon 
his  nature.  If  a  man  is  aware  that,  through  his  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ,  new  perceptions  and  powers  of  discern- 
ing solid  reality  where  he  only  saw  mist  before  have 
been  granted  to  him,  the  Apostle's  triumphant  assertion 
is  vindicated. 

And,  still  further,  the  words  of  my  text,  in  their 
assurance  of  possessing  something  far  more  solid  than 
an  opinion  or  a  creed,  in  Christ  Jesus  and  our  relation 
to  Him,  are  warranted,  on  the  consideration  that  the 
growth  of  the  Christian  life  largely  consists  in  changing 
belief  that  rests  on  testimony  into  knowledge  grounded 
in  vital  experience.  At  first  a  man  accepts  Jesus  Christ 
because,  for  one  reason  or  another,  he  is  led  to  give 
credence  to  the  evangelical  testimony  and  to  the 
apostolic  teaching:  but  as  he  goes  on  learning  more 
and  more  of  the  realities  of  the  Christian  life,  creed 
changes  into  consciousness ;  and  we  can  turn  round  to 
apostles  and  prophets,  and  say  to  them,  with  thank- 
fulness for  all  that  we  have  received  from  them,  '  Now 
we  believe,  not  because  of  your  saying,  but  because  we 
have  seen  Him  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed 
the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.'  That  is  the 
advance  which  Christian  men  should  all  make,  from 
the  infantile,  rudimentary  days,  when  they  accepted 

o 


34  I.  JOHN  [CH.v. 

Christ  on  the  witness  of  others,  to  the  time  when  they 
accepted  Him  because,  in  the  depth  of  their  own  ex- 
perience, they  have  found  Him  to  be  all  that  they  took 
Him  to  be.  The  true  test  of  creed  is  life.  The  true  way 
of  knowing  that  a  shelter  is  adequate  is  to  house  in  it, 
and  be  defended  from  the  pelting  of  every  pitiless 
storm.  The  medicine  we  know  to  be  powerful  when 
it  has  cured  us.  And  every  man  that  truly  grasps 
Jesus  Christ,  and  is  faithful  and  persevering  in  his 
hold,  can  set  his  seal  to  that  which  to  others  is 
but  a  thing  believed  on  hearsay,  and  accepted  on 
testimony. 

*  We  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come.'  Christian 
people,  have  you  such  a  first-hand  acquaintance  with 
the  articles  which  constitute  your  Christian  creed  as 
that?  Over  and  above  all  the  intellectual  reasons 
which  may  lead  to  the  acceptance,  as  a  theory,  of  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  have  you  that  living  experi- 
ence of  them  which  warrants  you  in  saying  'We 
know '  ?  Alas  !  Alas !  I  am  afraid  that  this  supreme 
ground  of  certitude  is  rarely  trodden  by  multitudes  of 
professing  Christians.  And  so  in  days  of  criticism  and 
upheaval  they  are  frightened  out  of  their  wits,  and  all 
but  out  of  their  faith,  and  are  nervous  and  anxious  lest 
from  this  corner  or  that  corner  or  the  other  corner  of 
the  field  of  honest  study  and  research,  there  may  come 
some  sudden  shock  that  will  blow  the  whole  fabric  of 
their  belief  to  pieces.  *He  that  believeth  shall  not 
make  haste,'  and  a  man  who  knows  what  Christ  has 
done  for  him  may  calmly  welcome  the  advent  of  any 
new  light,  sure  that  nothing  that  can  be  established  can 
touch  that  serene  centre  in  which  his  certitude  sits 
enshrined  and  calm.  Brother,  do  you  seek  to  be  able 
to  say, '  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed  *? 


V.20]  III.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  35 

II.  Note  the  new  power  of  knowing  God  given  by 
the  Son  who  is  come. 

John  says  that  one  issue  of  that  Incarnation  and 
permanent  presence  of  the  Lord  Christ  with  us  is  that 
'  He  hath  given  us  an  understanding  that  we  may  know 
Him  that  is  true.'  Now,  I  do  not  suppose  that  he 
means  thereby  that  any  absolutely  new  faculty  is 
conferred  upon  men,  but  that  new  direction  is  given  to 
old  ones,  and  dormant  powers  are  awakened.  Just  as 
in  the  miracles  of  our  Lord  the  blind  men  had  eyes,  but 
it  needed  the  touch  of  His  finger  before  the  sight  came 
to  them,  so  man,  that  was  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
which  he  has  not  altogether  lost  by  any  wandering, 
has  therein  lying  dormant  and  oppressed  the  capacity 
of  knowing  Him  from  whom  he  comes,  but  he  needs 
the  couching  hand  of  the  Christ  Himself,  in  order 
that  the  blind  eyes  may  be  capable  of  seeing  and  the 
slumbering  power  of  perception  be  awakened.  That 
gift  of  a  clarified  nature,  a  pure  heart,  which  is  the 
condition,  as  the  Master  Himself  said,  of  seeing  God — 
that  gift  is  bestowed  upon  all  who,  trusting  in  the 
Incarnate  Son,  submit  themselves  to  His  cleansing  hand. 

In  the  Incarnation  Jesus  Christ  gave  us  God  to  see ; 
by  His  present  work  in  our  souls  He  gives  us  the  power 
to  see  God.  The  knowledge  of  which  my  text  speaks 
is  the  knowledge  of  *  Him  that  is  true,'  by  which  preg- 
nant word  the  Apostle  means  to  contrast  the  Father 
whom  Jesus  Christ  sets  before  us  with  all  men's 
conceptions  of  a  Divine  nature ;  and  to  declare  that 
whilst  these  conceptions,  in  one  way  or  another,  fall 
beneath  or  diverge  from  reality  and  fact,  our  God 
manifested  to  us  by  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  One  whose 
nature  corresponds  to  the  name,  and  who  is  essentially 
that  which  is  included  in  it. 


86  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

But  what  I  would  dwell  on  especially  for  a  moment 
is  that  this  gift,  thus  given  by  the  Incarnate  and  present 
Christ,  is  not  an  intellectual  gift  only,  but  something 
far  deeper.  Inasmuch  as  the  Apostle  declares  that  the 
object  of  this  knowledge  is  not  a  truth  about  God  but 
God  Himself,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  knowledge 
is  such  as  we  have  of  a  person,  and  not  of  a  doctrine. 
Or,  to  put  it  into  simpler  words :  to  know  about  God  is 
one  thing,  and  to  know  God  is  quite  another.  We  may 
know  all  about  the  God  that  Christ  has  revealed  and 
yet  not  know  Him  in  the  very  sliglitest  degree.  To 
know  about  God  is  theology,  to  know  Him  is  religion. 
You  are  not  a  bit  better,  though  you  comprehend  the 
whole  sweep  of  Christ's  revelation  of  God,  if  the  God 
whom  you  in  so  far  comprehend  remain  a  stranger  to 
you.  That  we  may  know  Him  as  a  man  knows  his 
friend,  and  that  we  may  enter  into  relations  of  familiar 
acquaintance  with  Him,  Jesus  Christ  has  come  in  the 
flesh,  and  this  is  the  blessing  that  He  gives  us — not  an 
accurate  theology,  but  a  loving  friendship.  Has  Christ 
done  that  for  you,  my  brother  ? 

That  knowledge,  if  it  is  real  and  living,  will  be 
progressive.  More  and  more  we  shall  come  to  know. 
As  we  grow  like  Him  we  shall  draw  closer  to  Him ;  as 
we  draw  closer  to  Him  we  shall  grow  like  Him.  So 
the  Christian  life  is  destined  to  an  endless  progress, 
like  one  of  those  mathematical  spirals  which  ever  climb, 
ever  approximate  to,  but  never  reach,  the  summit  and 
the  centre  of  the  coil.  So,  if  we  have  Christ  for  our 
medium  both  of  light  and  of  sight,  if  He  both  gives  us 
God  to  see  and  the  power  to  see  Him,  we  shall  begin  a 
course  which  eternity  itself  will  not  witness  completed. 
We  have  landed  on  the  shores  of  a  mighty  continent, 
and  for  ever  and  for  ever  and  ever  we  shall  be  pressing 


V.20]  III.— TRIUMPHANT  CERTAINTIES  87 

deeper  and  deeper  into  the  bosom  of  the  land,  and 
learning  more  and  more  of  its  wealth  and  loveliness. 
•  We  know  that  we  know  Him  that  is  true.'  If  the  Son 
of  God  has  come  to  us,  we  know  God,  and  we  know  that 
we  know  Him.    Do  you  ? 

III.  Lastly,  note  here  the  Christian  indwelling  of 
God,  which  is  possible  through  the  Son  who  is  come. 

Friendship,  familiar  intercourse,  intimate  knowledge 
as  of  one  with  whom  we  have  long  dwelt,  instinctive 
sympathy  of  heart  and  mind,  are  not  all  which,  in 
John's  estimation,  Jesus  Christ  brings  to  them  that  love 
Him,  and  live  in  Him.  For  he  adds,  *  We  are  in  Him 
that  is  true.'  Of  old  Abraham  was  called  the  Friend  of 
God,  but  an  auguster  title  belongs  to  us.  'Know  ye 
not  that  ye  are  the  temples  of  the  living  God,  and  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you  ?'  Oh  !  brethren,  do 
not  be  tempted,  by  any  dread  of  mysticism,  to  deprive 
yourselves  of  that  crown  and  summit  of  all  the  gifts 
and  blessings  of  the  Gospel,  but  open  your  hearts  and 
your  minds  to  expect  and  to  believe  in  the  actual  abiding 
of  the  Divine  nature  in  us.  Mysticism  ?  Yes  !  And  I 
do  not  know  what  religion  is  worth  if  there  is  not 
mysticism  in  it,  for  the  very  heart  of  it  seems  to  me  to 
be  the  possible  interpenetration  and  union  of  man  and 
God — not  in  the  sense  of  obliterating  the  personalities, 
but  in  the  deep,  wholesome  sense  in  which  Christ 
Himself  and  all  His  apostles  taught  it,  and  in  which 
every  man  who  has  had  any  profound  experience  of 
the  Christian  life  feels  it  to  be  true. 

But  notice  the  words  of  my  text  for  a  moment,  where 
the  Apostle  goes  on  to  explain  and  define  how  *  we  are 
in  Him  that  is  true,'  because  we  are  '  in  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ.'  That  carries  lis  away  back  to  'Abide  in  Me, 
and  I  in  you.'    John  caught  the  whole  strain  of  such 


88  I.  JOHN  [CH.T. 

thoughts  from  those  sacred  words  in  the  upper  room. 
Christ  in  us  is  the  deepest  truth  of  Christianity.  And 
that  God  is  in  us,  if  Christ  is  in  us,  is  the  teaching  not 
only  of  my  text  but  of  the  Lord  Himself,  when  He  said, 
'We  will  come  unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with 
him.' 

And  will  not  a  man '  know '  that  ?  Will  it  not  be  some- 
thing deeper  and  better  than  intellectual  perception 
by  which  he  is  aware  of  the  presence  of  the  Christ  in 
his  heart  ?  Cannot  we  all  have  it  if  we  will  ?  There  is 
only  one  way  to  it,  and  that  is  by  simple  trust  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Then,  as  I  said,  the  trust  with  which  we  began 
will  not  leave  us,  but  will  be  glorified  into  experience 
with  which  the  trust  will  be  enriched. 

Brethren,  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  that  I  have 
been  trying  to  say  is  just  this:  lay  your  poor  per- 
sonalities in  Christ's  hands,  and  lean  yourselves  upon 
Him;  and  there  will  come  into  your  hearts  a  Divine 
power,  and,  if  you  are  faithful  to  your  faith,  you  will 
know  that  it  is  not  in  vain.  There  is  a  tremendous 
alternative,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  suggested 
by  the  sequence  of  thoughts  in  my  text,  '  the  whole 
world  lieth  in  the  wicked  one '  but  *  we  are  in  Him  that 
is  true.'  We  have  to  choose  our  dwelling-place,  whether 
we  shall  dwell  in  that  dark  region  of  evil,  or  whether 
we  shall  dwell  in  God,  and  know  that  God  is  in  us. 

If  we  are  true  to  the  conditions,  we  shall  receive  the 
promises.  And  then  our  Christian  faith  will  not  be 
dashed  with  hesitations,  nor  shall  we  be  afraid  lest  any 
new  light  shall  eclipse  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  but, 
in  the  midst  of  the  babble  of  controversy,  we  may  be 
content  to  be  ignorant  of  much,  to  hold  much  in 
suspense,  to  part  with  not  a  little,  but  yet  with  quiet 
hearts  to  be  sure  of  the  one  thing  needful,  and  with 


vs.20,21]  LAST  APOSTLE'S  LAST  WORDS  89 

unfaltering  tongues  to  proclaim  'We  know  that  the 
Son  of  God  is  come,  and  we  are  in  Him  that  is  true.' 


THE  LAST  WORDS  OF  THE  LAST  APOSTLE 

'This  is  the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.    21.  Little  children,  keep  yourselres  from 
idols.    Amen.'— 1  John  t.  20,  21. 

So  the  Apostle  ends  his  letter.  These  words  are 
probably  not  only  the  close  of  this  epistle,  but  the  last 
words,  chronologically,  of  Scripture.  The  old  man 
gathers  together  his  ebbing  force  to  sum  up  his  life's 
work  in  a  sentence,  which  might  be  remembered  though 
much  else  was  forgotten.  Last  words  stick.  Perhaps, 
too,  some  thought  of  future  generations,  to  whom  his 
witness  might  come,  passed  across  his  mind.  At  all 
events,  some  thought  that  we  are  here  listening  to  the 
last  words  of  the  last  Apostle  may  well  be  in  ours.  You 
will  observe  that,  in  this  final  utterance,  the  Apostle 
drops  the  triumphant  *  we  know,'  which  we  have  found 
in  previous  sermons  reiterated  with  such  emphasis. 
He  does  so,  not  because  he  doubted  that  all  his  brethren 
would  gladly  attest  and  confirm  what  he  was  about  to 
say,  but  because  it  was  fitting  that  his  last  words  should 
be  his  very  own ;  the  utterance  of  personal  experience, 
and  weighty  with  it,  and  with  apostolic  authority.  So 
he  smelts  all  that  he  had  learned  from  Christ,  and  had 
been  teaching  for  fifty  years,  into  that  one  sentence. 
The  feeble  voice  rings  out  clear  and  strong ;  and  then 
softens  into  tremulous  tones  of  earnest  exhortation, 
and  almost  of  entreaty.  The  dying  light  leaps  up  in 
one  bright  flash:  the  lamp  is  broken,  but  the  flash 
remains.  And  if  we  will  let  it  shine  into  our  lives,  we 
shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  have  the  light  of  life. 


40  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

I.  Here  we  have  the  sum  of  all  that  we  need  to  know 
about  God. 

*  This  is  the  true  God.'  The  first  question  is,  What  or 
whom  does  John  mean  by  *  this '  ? 

Grammatically,  we  may  refer  the  word  to  the 
immediately  preceding  name,  Jesus  Christ.  But  it 
is  extremely  improbable  that  the  Apostle  should  so 
suddenly  shift  his  point  of  view,  as  he  would  do  if, 
having  just  drawn  a  clear  distinction  between  'Him 
that  is  true,'  and  the  Christ  who  reveals  Him,  he 
immediately  proceeded  to  apply  the  former  designation 
to  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  It  is  far  more  in  accordance 
with  his  teaching,  and  with  the  whole  scope  of  the 
passage,  if  by '  this '  we  understand  the  Father  of  whom 
he  has  just  been  speaking.  It  is  no  tautology  that  he 
reiterates  in  this  connection  that  He  is  *  true.'  For  he 
has  separated  now  his  own  final  attestation  from  the 
common  consciousness  of  the  Christian  community  with 
which  he  has  previously  been  dealing.  And  when  he 
says, '  This  is  the  true  God '  he  means  to  say, '  This  God 
of  whom  I  have  been  afiirming  that  Jesus  Christ  is  His 
sole  Revealer,  and  of  whom  I  have  been  declaring  that 
through  Jesus  Christ  we  may  know  Him  and  dwell  abid- 
ingly in  Him,' '  this' — and  none  else — *  is  the  true  God.' 

Then  the  second  question  that  I  have  to  answer 
briefly  is,  What  does  John  mean  by  *  true '  ?  I  had 
occasion,  in  a  previous  sermon  on  the  foregoing  words, 
to  point  out  that  by  that  expression  he  means,  %vbenever 
he  uses  it,  some  person  or  thing  whose  nature  and 
character  correspond  to  his  or  its  name,  and  who  is 
essentially  and  perfectly  that  which  the  name  expresses. 
If  we  take  that  as  the  signification  of  the  word,  we  just 
come  to  this,  that  the  final  assertion  into  which  the  old 
Apostle  flings  all  his  force,  and  which  he  wishes  to  stand 


V8.20,21]  LAST  APOSTLE'S  LAST  WORDS  41 

out  prominent  as  his  last  word  to  his  brethren  and  to 
the  world,  is  that  the  God  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  with  whom  a  man  through  Jesus  Christ  may  have 
fellowship  of  knowledge  and  friendship — that  He  and 
none  but  He  answers  to  all  that  men  mean  when  they 
speak  of  a  God ;  that  He,  if  I  might  use  such  an  expres- 
sion, fully  fills  the  part. 

Brethren,  if  we  but  think  that,  however  it  comes 
(no  matter  about  that),  every  man  has  in  him  a  capacity 
of  conceiving  of  a  perfect  Being,  of  righteousness, 
power,  purity,  and  love,  and  that  all  through  the  ages 
of  the  world's  yearnings  there  has  never  been  presented 
to  it  the  realisation  of  that  dim  conception,  but  that 
all  idolatry,  all  worship,  has  failed  in  bodying  out 
a  Person  who  would  answer  to  the  requirements  of  a 
man's  spirit,  then  we  come  to  the  position  in  which 
these  final  words  of  the  old  fisherman  go  down  to  a 
deeper  depth  than  all  the  world's  wisdom,  and  carry  a 
message  of  consolation  and  a  true  gospel  to  be  found 
nowhere  besides. 

Whatsoever  embodiments  men  may  have  tried  to  give 
to  their  dim  conception  of  a  God,  these  have  been 
always  limitations,  and  often  corruptions,  of  it.  And 
to  limit  or  to  separate  is,  in  this  case,  to  destroy.  No 
pantheon  can  ever  satisfy  the  soul  of  man  who  yearns 
for  One  Person  in  whom  all  that  he  can  dream  of 
beauty,  truth,  goodness  shall  be  ensphered.  A  galaxy  of 
stars,  white  as  the  whitest  spot  in  the  Milky  Way,  can 
never  be  a  substitute  for  the  sun.  *  This  is  the  true 
God  ' ;  and  all  others  are  corruptions,  or  limitations,  or 
divisions,  of  the  indissoluble  unity. 

Then,  are  men  to  go  for  ever  and  ever  with  'the 
blank  misgivings  of  a  creature,  moving  about  in  worlds 
not  realised '  ?    Is  it  true  that  I  can  fancy  some  one  far 


42  I.  JOHN  [OH.V. 

greater  than  is  ?  Is  it  true  that  my  imagination  can 
paint  a  nobler  form  than  reality  acknowledges  ?  It  is 
so,  alas!  unless  we  take  John's  swan-song  and  last 
testimony  as  true,  and  say: — This  God,  manifest  in 
Jesus  Christ,  on  whose  heart  I  can  lay  my  head,  and 
into  whose  undying  and  unstained  light  I  can  gaze,  and 
in  whose  righteousness  I  can  participate,  this  God  is 
the  real  God;  no  dream,  no  projection  from  my  own 
nature,  magnified  and  cleansed,  and  thrown  up  first 
from  the  earth  that  it  may  come  down  from  heaven,  but 
the  reality,  of  whom  all  human  imaginations  are  but  the 
faint  transcripts,  though  they  be  the  faithful  prophets. 
For,  consider  what  it  is  that  the  world  owes  to  Jesus 
Christ,  in  its  knowledge  of  God.  Remember  that  to  us 
orphaned  men  He  has  come  and  said,  as  none  ever  said, 
and  showed  as  none  ever  showed :  *  Ye  are  not  father- 
less, there  is  a  Father  in  the  heavens.'  Consider  that  to 
the  world,  sunk  in  sense  and  flesh,  and  blotting  its  most 
radiant  imaginations  of  the  Divine  by  some  veil  and 
hindrance,  of  corporeity  and  materialism.  He  comes, 
and  has  said,  '  God  is  a  Spirit.'  Consider  that,  taught  of 
Him,  this  Apostle,  to  whom  was  committed  the  great 
distinction  of  in  monosyllables  preaching  central  truths, 
and  in  words  that  a  child  can  apprehend,  setting  forth 
the  depths  that  eternity  and  angels  cannot  compre- 
hend, has  said,  '  God  is  Light,  and  in  Him  is  no  dark- 
ness at  all.'  And  consider  that  he  has  set  the  apex  on 
the  shining  pyramid,  and  spoken  the  last  word  when 
he  has  told  us,  '  God  is  Love.'  And  put  these  four  re- 
velations together,  the  Father;  Spirit ;  unsullied  Light; 
absolutely  Love ;  and  then  let  us  bow  down  and  say, 
'Thou  hast  said  the  truth,  O  aged  Seer.  This  is  our 
God;  we  have  waited  for  Him,  and  He  will  save  us. 
This — and  none  beside — is  the  true  God.' 


V8.20,2l]  LAST  APOSTLE'S  LAST  WORDS  48 

I  know  not  what  the  modern  world  is  to  do  for  a 
God  if  it  drifts  away  from  Jesus  Christ  and  His  reve- 
lations. I  know  that  it  is  always  a  dangerous  way  of 
arguing  to  try  to  force  people  upon  alternatives,  one 
of  which  is  so  repellent  as  to  compel  them  to  cling  to 
the  other.  But  it  does  seem  to  me  that  the  whole 
progress  of  modern  thought,  with  the  advansoment  of 
modern  physical  science,  and  other  branches  of  know- 
ledge which  perhaps  are  not  yet  to  be  called  science, 
are  all  steadily  converging  on  forcing  us  to  this  choice 
— will  you  have  God  in  Christ,  or,  will  you  wander  about 
in  a  Godless  world,  and  for  your  highest  certitude  have 
to  say,  •  Perhaps  '?  'This  is  the  true  God,'  and  if  we  go 
away  from  Him  I  do  not  know  where  we  are  to  go. 

II.  Here  we  have  the  sum  of  His  gifts  to  us. 

'  This  is  the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.'  Now,  let  us 
distinctly  and  emphatically  put  first  that  what  is  here 
declared  is  primarily  something  about  God,  and  not 
about  His  gift  to  men ;  and  that  the  two  clauses,  •  the 
true  God,'  and  *  eternal  life,'  stand  in  precisely  the  same 
relation  to  the  preceding  words,  *  This  is.'  That  is  to 
say,  the  revelation  which  John  would  lay  upon  our 
hearts,  that  from  it  there  may  spring  up  in  them  a 
wondrous  hope,  is  that,  in  His  own  essential  self,  the 
God  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  brought  into  living 
fellowship  with  us  by  Him,  is  'eternal  life.*  By 
'eternal  life'  he  means  something  a  great  deal  more 
august  than  endless  existence.  He  means  a  life  which 
not  only  is  not  ended  by  time,  but  which  is  above  time, 
and  not  subject  to  its  conditions  at  all.  Eternity  is  not 
time  spun  out  for  ever.  And  so  we  are  not  lifted  up  into 
a  region  where  there  is  little  light,  but  where  the  very 
darkness  is  light,  just  as  the  curtain  was  the  picture,  in 
the  old  story  of  the  painter, 


44  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

That  seems  to  part  us  utterly  from  God.  He  is 
*  eternal  life ' ;  then,  we  poor  creatures  down  here, 
whose  bel^g  is  all  *  cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined '  by 
succession,  and  duration,  and  the  partitions  of  time, 
what  can  we  have  in  common  with  Him  ?  John  answers 
for  us.  For,  remember  that  in  the  earlier  part  of  this 
epistle  he  writes  that  '  the  life  was  manifested,  and  we 
shew  unto  you  that  eternal  life  which  was  with  the 
Father,  and  was  manifested  unto  us,'  and  *  we  declare 
it  unto  you  ;  that  ye  also  may  have  fellowship  with  us; 
and  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with  His 
Son.'  So,  then,  strange  as  it  is,  and  beyond  our  thoughts 
as  it  is,  there  may  pass  into  creatures  that  very  eternal 
life  which  is  in  God,  and  was  manifested  in  Jesus.  We 
have  to  think  of  Him  because  we  know  Him  to  be  love, 
as  in  essence  self-communicating,  and  whatsoever  a 
creature  can  receive,  a  loving  Father,  the  true  God, 
will  surely  give. 

But  we  are  not  left  to  wander  about  in  regions  of 
mysticism  and  darkness.  For  we  know  this,  that  how- 
ever strange  and  difficult  the  thought  of  eternal  life  as 
possessed  by  a  creature  may  be,  to  give  it  was  the  very 
purpose  for  which  Jesus  Christ  came  on  earth.  '  I  am 
that  Bread  of  Life.'  *  I  am  come  that  they  might  have 
life,  and  have  it  more  abundantly.'  And  we  are  not 
left  to  grope  in  doubt  as  to  what  that  eternal  life  con- 
sists in ;  for  He  has  said  :  '  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they 
might  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  Thou  hast  sent.'  Nor  are  we  left  in  any  more 
doubt  as  to  that  bond  by  which  the  whole  fulness  of 
this  Divine  gift  may  flow  into  a  man's  spirit.  For  over 
and  over  again  the  Master  Himself  has  declared,  '  He 
that  believeth  hath  everlasting  life.' 

Thus,  then,  there  is  a  life  which  belongs  to  God  on 


V8.20,2l]  LAST  APOSTLE'S  LAST  WORDS  45 

His  throne,  a  life  lifted  above  the  limitations  of  time, 
a  life  communicated  by  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  waters  of 
some  land-locked  lake  may  flow  down  through  a  spark- 
ling river,  a  life  which  consists  in  fellowship  with  God, 
a  life  which  may  be,  and  is,  ours,  on  the  simple  condi- 
tion of  trusting  Him  who  gives  it,  and  a  life  which, 
eternal  as  it  is,  and  destined  to  a  glory  all  undreamed 
of,  in  that  future  beyond  the  grave,  is  now  the  posses- 
sion of  every  man  that  puts  forth  the  faith  which  is  its 
condition.  '  He  that  belie veth  hath ' — not  shall  have,  in 
some  distant  future,  but  has  to-day — '  everlasting  life,' 
verily  here  and  now.  And  so  John  lays  this  upon  our 
hearts,  as  the  ripe  fruit  of  all  his  experience,  and  the 
meaning  of  all  his  message  to  the  world,  that  God  re- 
vealed in  Christ  *  is  the  true  God,'  and  as  Himself  the 
possessor,  is  the  source  for  us  all,  of  life  eternal. 

III.  Lastly,  we  have  here  the  consequent  sum  of 
Christian  effort. 

•  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols,'  seeing 
that  '  this  is  the  true  God,'  the  only  One  that  answers 
to  your  requirements,  and  will  satisfy  your  desires. 
Do  not  go  rushing  to  these  shrines  of  false  deities  that 
crowd  every  corner  of  Ephesus — ay  !  and  every  corner 
of  Manchester.  For  what  does  John  mean  by  an  idol  ? 
Does  he  mean  that  barbarous  figure  of  Diana  that 
stood  in  the  great  temple,  hideous  and  monstrous? 
No  1  he  means  anything,  or  any  person,  that  comes 
into  the  heart  and  takes  the  place  which  ought  to  be 
filled  by  God,  and  by  Him  only.  What  I  prize  most, 
what  I  trust  most  utterly,  what  I  should  be  most  for- 
lorn if  I  lost ;  what  is  the  working  aim  of  my  life,  and 
the  hunger  of  my  heart — that  is  my  idol.  We  all  know 
that. 

Is  the  exhortation  not  needed,  my  brother?     In 


4.6  I.  JOHN  [CH.V. 

Ephesus  it  was  hard  to  have  nothing  to  do  with 
heathenism.  In  that  ancient  world  their  religion, 
though  it  was  a  superficial  thing,  was  intertwined  with 
daily  life  in  a  fashion  that  puts  us  to  shame.  Every 
meal  had  its  libation,  and  almost  every  act  was  knit  by 
some  ceremony  or  other  to  a  god.  So  that  Christian 
men  and  women  had  almost  to  go  out  of  the  world,  in 
order  to  be  free  from  complicity  in  the  all-pervading 
idol-worship.  Now,  although  the  form  has  changed, 
and  the  fascinations  of  old  idolatry  belong  only  to  a 
certain  stage  in  the  world's  culture  and  history,  the 
temptation  to  idolatry  remains  just  as  subtle,  just  as 
all-pervasive,  and  the  yielding  to  it  just  as  absurd. 
You  and  I  call  ourselves  Christians.  We  say  we  believe 
that  there  is  nothing  else,  and  nobody  else,  in  the  whole 
sweep  of  the  universe  that  can  satisfy  our  hearts,  or  be 
what  our  imagination  can  conceive,  but  God  only. 
Having  said  that  on  the  Sunday,  what  about  Monday? 
They  have  forsaken  Me,  the  fountain  of  living  water, 
and  hewed  to  themselves  broken  cisterns  that  can  hold 
no  water.'  '  Little  children ' — for  we  are  scarcely  more 
mature  than  that — 'little  children,  keep  yourselves 
from  idols.' 

And  how  is  it  to  be  done  ?  '  Keep  yourselves.' 
Then  you  can  do  it,  and  you  have  to  make  a  dead  lift 
of  effort,  or  be  sure  of  this— that  the  subtle  seduction 
will  slide  into  your  heart,  and  before  you  know  it,  you 
will  be  out  of  God's  sanctuary,  and  grovelling  in 
Diana's  temple.  But  it  is  not  only  our  own  effort  that 
is  needed,  for  just  a  sentence  or  two  before,  the  Apostle 
had  said :  '  He  that  is  born  of  God  '—that  is,  Christ— 
•  keepeth  us.'  So  our  keeping  of  ourselves  is  essentially 
our  letting  Him  keep  us.  Stay  inside  the  walls  of  the 
citadel,  and  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  the  besiegers  ;  go 


v8.20,2l]  GRACE,  MERCY,  AND  PEACE  47 

outside  by  letting  your  faith  flag,  and  you  will  be 
captured  or  killed.  Keep  yourselves  by  clinging  'to 
Him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  to  pre- 
sent you  faultless.'  Make  experience  by  fellowship 
with  Him  who  is  the  only  true  God,  and  able  to 
satisfy  your  whole  nature,  mind,  heart,  will,  and  these 
false  deities,  the  whole  rabble  of  them,  will  have  no 
power  to  tempt  you  to  bow  the  knee. 

Brethren !  here  is  the  sum  of  the  whole  matter. 
There  is  one  truth  on  which  we  can  stay  our  hearts, 
one  God  in  whom  we  can  utterly  trust,  the  God  re- 
vealed in  Jesus  Christ.  If  we  do  not  see  Him  in  Christ, 
we  shall  not  see  Him  at  all,  but  wander  about  all  our 
days  in  a  world  empty  of  solid  reality.  There  is  one 
gift  which  will  satisfy  all  our  needs,  the  gift  of  eternal 
life  in  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  one  practical  injunction 
which  will  save  us  from  many  a  heartache,  and  which 
our  weakness  can  never  afford  to  neglect,  and  that  is 
to  keep  ourselves  from  all  false  worship.  These  golden 
words  of  my  text,  in  their  simplicity,  in  their  depth,  in 
their  certainty,  in  their  comprehensiveness,  are  worthy 
to  be  the  last  words  of  Revelation ;  and  to  stand  to  all 
the  world,  through  all  ages,  as  the  shining  apex,  or  the 
solid  foundation,  or  the  central  core  of  Christianity. 
'This' — this,  and  none  else — 'is  the  true  God  and 
eternal  life.  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from 
idols.' 

GRACE,  MERCY,  AND  PEACE 

'Grace  be  with  you,  mercy,  and  peace,  from  God  the  Father,  and  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Father,  in  truth  and  love.'— 2  John  3. 

We  have  here  a  very  unusual  form  of  the  Apostolic 
salutation.  •  Grace,  mercy,  and  peace '  are  put  together 
in  this  fashion  only  in  Paul's  two  Epistles  to  Timothy, 


48  II.  JOHN  [CH.  I. 

and  in  this  the  present  instance ;  and  all  reference  to 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  an  agent  in  the  benediction  is,  as 
there,  omitted. 

The  three  main  words,  *  Grace,  mercy,  and  peace,' 
stand  related  to  each  other  in  a  very  interesting 
manner.  If  you  will  think  for  a  moment  you  will  see, 
I  presume,  that  the  Apostle  starts,  as  it  were,  from  the 
fountain-head,  and  slowly  traces  the  course  of  the 
blessing  down  to  its  lodgment  in  the  heart  of  man. 
There  is  the  fountain,  and  the  stream,  and,  if  I  may 
so  say,  the  great  still  lake  in  the  soul,  into  which  its 
waters  flow,  and  which  the  flowing  waters  make. 
There  is  the  sun,  and  the  beam,  and  the  brightness 
grows  deep  in  the  heart  of  man.  Grace,  referring 
solely  to  the  Divine  attitude  and  thought :  mercy,  the 
manifestation  of  grace  in  act,  referring  to  the  workings 
of  that  great  Godhead  in  its  relation  to  humanity :  and 
peace,  which  is  the  issue  in  the  soul  of  the  fluttering 
down  upon  it  of  the  mercy  which  is  the  activity  of  the 
grace.  So  these  three  come  down,  as  it  were,  a  great, 
solemn,  marble  staircase  from  the  heights  of  the  Divine 
mind,  one  step  at  a  time,  down  to  the  level  of  earth ; 
and  the  blessings  which  are  shed  along  the  earth.  Such 
is  the  order.  All  begins  with  grace  ;  and  the  end  and 
purpose  of  grace,  when  it  flashes  into  deed,  and  becomes 
mercy,  is  to  fill  my  soul  with  quiet  repose,  and  shed 
across  all  the  turbulent  sea  of  human  love  a  great 
calm,  a  beam  of  sunshine  that  gilds,  and  miraculously 
stills  while  it  gilds,  the  waves. 

If  that  be,  then,  the  account  of  the  relation  of  these 
three  to  ane  another,  let  me  just  dwell  for  a  moment 
upon  their  respective  characteristics,  that  we  may  get 
more  fully  the  large  significance  and  wide  scope  of  this 
blessing.    Let  us  begin  at  what  may  be  regarded  either 


V.  3]   GRACE,  MERCY,  AND  PEACE    49 

as  the  highest  point  from  which  all  the  stream  descends, 
or  as  the  foundation  upon  which  all  the  structure  rests. 
'  Grace  from  God  the  Father  and  from  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Father.'  These  two,  blended  and 
yet  separate,  to  either  of  whom  a  Christian  man  has  a 
distinct  relation,  these  two  are  the  sources,  equally,  of 
the  whole  of  the  grace. 

The  Scriptural  idea  of  grace  is  love  that  stoops,  and 
that  pardons,  and  that  communicates.  I  say  nothing 
about  that  last  characteristic,  but  I  would  like  to  dwell 
for  a  moment  or  two  upon  the  other  phases  of  this 
great  word,  a  key-word  to  the  understanding  of  so 
much  of  Scripture. 

The  first  thing  then  that  strikes  me  in  it  is  how  it 
exults  in  that  great  thought  that  there  is  no  reason 
whatsoever  for  God's  love  except  God's  will.  The  very 
foundation  and  notion  of  the  word  '  grace '  is  a  free, 
undeserved,  unsolicited,  self-prompted,  and  altogether 
gratuitous  bestowment,  a  love  that  is  its  own  reason, 
as  indeed  the  whole  of  the  Divine  acts  are,  just  as  we 
say  of  Him  that  He  draws  His  being  from  Himself,  so 
the  whole  motive  for  His  action  and  the  whole  reason 
for  His  heart  of  tenderness  to  us  lies  in  Himself.  We 
have  no  power.  We  love  one  another  because  we 
apprehend  something  deserving  of  love,  or  fancy  that 
we  do.  We  love  one  another  because  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  object  on  which  our  love  falls ;  which, 
either  by  kindred  or  by  character,  or  by  visible  form, 
draws  it  out.  We  are  influenced  so,  and  love  a  thing 
because  the  thing  or  the  person  is  perceived  by  us  as 
being  worthy,  for  some  reason  or  other,  of  the  love. 
God  loves  because  He  cannot  help  it ;  God  loves  because 
He  is  God.  Our  love  is  drawn  out — I  was  going  to  say 
pumped  out — by  an    application  of  external  causes. 

D 


50  II.  JOHN  [OH.L 

God's  love  is  like  an  artesian  well,  whensoever  yon 
strike,  up  comes,  self-impelled,  gushing  into  light 
because  there  is  such  a  central  store  of  it  beneath 
everything,  the  bright  and  flashing  waters.  Grace  is 
love  that  is  not  drawn  out,  but  that  bursts  out,  self- 
originated,  undeserved.  'Not  for  your  sakes,  be  it 
known  unto  you,  O  house  of  Israel,  but  for  Mine  own 
name's  sake,  do  I  this.'  The  grace  of  God  is  above  that, 
comes  spontaneously,  driven  by  its  own  fulness,  and 
welling  up  unasked,  unprompted,  undeserved,  and 
therefore  never  to  be  turned  away  by  our  evil,  never  to 
be  wearied  by  our  indijfference,  never  to  be  brushed 
aside  by  our  negligence,  never  to  be  provoked  by  our 
transgression,  the  fixed,  eternal,  unalterable  centre 
of  the  Divine  nature.    His  love  is  grace. 

And  then,  in  like  manner,  let  me  remind  you  that 
there  lies  in  this  great  word,  which  in  itself  is  a  gospel, 
the  preaching  that  God's  love,  though  it  be  not  turned 
away  by,  is  made  tender  by  our  sin.  Grace  is  love 
extended  to  a  person  that  might  reasonably  expect, 
because  he  deserves,  something  very  different;  and 
when  there  is  laid,  as  the  foundation  of  everything, 
'  the  grace  of  our  Father  and  of  the  Son  of  the  Father,' 
it  is  but  packing  into  one  word  that  great  truth  which 
we  all  of  us,  saints  and  sinners,  need— a  sign  that  God's 
love  is  love  that  deals  with  our  transgressions  and 
shortcomings,  flows  forth  perfectly  conscious  of  them, 
and  manifests  itself  in  taking  them  away,  both  in  their 
guilt,  punishment,  and  peril.  '  The  grace  of  our  Father  * 
is  a  love  to  which  sin-convinced  consciences  may  cer- 
tainly appeal ;  a  love  to  which  all  sin-tyrannised  souls 
may  turn  for  emancipation  and  deliverance.  Then,  if 
we  turn  for  a  moment  from  that  deep  fountain,  'Love's 
ever-springing  well,'  as  one  of  our  old  hymns  has  it,  to 


T.  3]   GRACE,  MERCY,  AND  PEACE    51 

the  stream,  we  get  other  blessed  thoughts.  The  love,  the 
grace,  breaks  into  mercy.  The  fountain  gathers  itself 
into  a  river,  the  infinite,  Divine  love  concentrates  itself 
in  act,  and  that  act  is  described  by  this  one  word, 
mercy.  As  grace  is  love  which  forgives,  so  mercy  is 
love  which  pities  and  helps.  Mercy  regards  men,  its 
object,  as  full  of  sorrows  and  miseries,  and  so  robes 
itself  in  garb  of  compassion,  and  takes  wine  and  oil 
into  its  hands  to  pour  into  the  wound,  and  lays  often  a 
healing  hand,  very  carefully  and  very  gently,  upon  the 
creature,  lest,  like  a  clumsy  surgeon,  it  should  pain 
instead  of  heal,  and  hurt  where  it  desires  to  console. 
God's  grace  softens  itself  into  mercy,  and  all  His  deal- 
ings with  us  men  must  be  on  the  footing  that  we  are 
not  only  sinful,  but  that  we  are  weak  and  wretched, 
and  so  fit  subjects  for  a  compassion  which  is  the 
strangest  paradox  of  a  perfect  and  divine  heart.  The 
mercy  of  God  is  the  outcome  of  His  grace. 

And  as  is  the  fountain  and  the  stream,  so  is  the  great 
lake  into  which  it  spreads  itself  when  it  is  received  into 
a  human  heart.  Peace  comes,  the  all-sufficient  sum- 
ming up  of  everything  that  God  can  give,  and  that 
men  can  need,  from  His  loving-kindness,  and  from  tlieir 
needs.  The  world  is  too  wide  to  be  narrowed  to  any 
single  aspect  of  the  various  discords  and  disharmonies 
which  trouble  men.  Peace  with  God ;  peace  in  this 
anarchic  kingdom  within  me,  where  conscience  and 
will,  hopes  and  fears,  duty  and  passion,  sorrows  and 
joys,  cares  and  confidence,  are  ever  fighting  one 
another ;  where  we  are  torn  asunder  by  conflicting 
aims  and  rival  claims,  and  wherever  any  part  of  our 
nature  asserting  itself  against  another  leads  to  in- 
testine warfare,  and  troubles  the  poor  soul.  All  that 
is  harmonised  and  quieted  down,  and  made  concordant 


52  II.  JOHN  [cH.i. 

and  co-operative  to  one  great  end,  when  the  grace  and 
the  mercy  have  flowed  silently  into  our  spirits  and 
harmonised  aims  and  desires. 

There  is  peace  that  comes  from  submission  ;  tran- 
quillity of  spirit,  which  is  the  crown  and  reward  of 
obedience ;  repose,  which  is  the  very  smile  upon  the 
face  of  faith,  and  all  these  things  are  given  unto  us 
along  with  the  grace  and  mercy  of  our  God.  And  as  the 
man  that  possesses  this  is  at  peace  with  God,  and  at 
peace  with  himself,  so  he  may  bear  in  his  heart  that 
singular  blessing  of  a  perfect  tranquillity  and  quiet 
amidst  the  distractions  of  duty,  of  sorrows,  of  losses, 
and  of  cares.  '  In  everything  by  prayer  and  supplica- 
tion with  thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be  known  unto 
God;  and  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understand- 
ing shall  keep  your  hearts  and  minds  in  Christ  Jesus.' 
And  he  who  is  thus  at  friendship  with  God,  and  in 
harmony  with  himself,  and  at  rest  from  sorrows  and 
cares,  will  surely  find  no  enemies  amongst  men  with 
whom  he  must  needs  be  at  war,  but  will  be  a  son 
of  peace,  and  walk  the  world,  meeting  in  them  all 
a  friend  and  a  brother.  So  all  discords  may  be  quieted ; 
even  though  still  we  have  to  fight  the  good  fight  of 
faith,  we  may  do,  like  Gideon  of  old,  build  an  altar 
to  '  Jehovah-shalom,'  the  God  of  peace. 

And  now  one  word,  as  to  what  this  great  text  tells 
us  are  the  conditions  for  a  Christian  man,  of  pre- 
serving, vivid  and  full,  these  great  gifts, '  Grace,  mercy, 
and  peace  be  unto  you,'  or,  as  the  Revised  Version 
more  accurately  reads, '  shall  be  with  us  in  truth  and 
love.'  Truth  and  love  are,  as  it  were,  the  space  within 
which  the  river  flows,  if  I  may  so  say,  the  banks  of 
the  stream.  Or,  to  get  away  from  the  metaphor,  these 
are  set  forth  as  being  the  conditions  abiding  in  which, 


V.  3]   GRACE,  MERCY,  AND  PEACE    58 

for  our  parts,  we  shall  receive  this  benediction — 'In 
truth  and  in  love.' 

I  have  no  time  to  enlarge  upon  the  great  thoughts 
that  these  two  words,  thus  looked  at,  suggest ;  let  me 
put  it  into  a  sentence.  To  '  abide  in  the  truth  *  is  to 
keep  ourselves  conscientiously  and  habitually  under 
the  influence  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the 
Christ  who  is  Himself  the  Truth.  They  who,  keeping 
in  Him,  realising  His  presence,  believing  His  word, 
founding  their  thinking  about  the  unseen,  about  their 
relations  to  God,  about  sin  and  forgiveness,  about 
righteousness  and  duty,  and  about  a  thousand  other 
things,  upon  Christ  and  the  revelation  that  He  makes, 
these  are  those  who  shall  receive  '  Grace,  mercy,  and 
peace.'  Keep  yourselves  in  Christ,  and  Christ  coming 
to  you,  brings  in  His  hands,  and  is,  the  '  grace  and  the 
mercy  and  the  peace  '  of  which  my  text  speaks.  And 
in  love,  if  we  want  these  blessings,  we  must  keep  our- 
selves consciously  in  the  possession  of,  and  in  the 
grateful  response  of  our  hearts  to,  the  great  love,  the 
incarnate  Love,  which  is  given  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Here  is,  so  to  speak,  the  line  of  direction  which  these 
great  mercies  take.  The  man  who  stands  in  their  path, 
they  will  come  to  him  and  fill  his  heart ;  the  man  that 
steps  aside,  they  will  run  past  him  and  not  touch  him. 
You  keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  by  communion, 
by  the  exercise  of  mind  and  heart  and  faith  upon  Him ; 
and  then  be  sure — for  my  text  is  not  only  a  wish,  but  a 
confident  affirmation — be  sure  that  the  fountain  of  all 
blessing  itself,  and  the  stream  of  petty  benedictions 
which  flow  from  it,  will  open  themselves  out  in  your 
hearts  into  a  quiet,  deep  sea,  on  whose  calm  surface  no 
tempests  shall  ever  rave,  and  on  whose  unruffled  bosom 
God  Himself  will  manifest  and  mirror  His  face. 


A  PROSPEROUS  SOUL 

*  Beloved,  I  wish  above  all  things  that  thou  mayest  prosper  and  be  In  health, 
even  as  thy  soul  prospereth.'— 3  John  2, 

This  little  letter  contains  no  important  doctrinal 
teaching  nor  special  revelation  of  any  kind.  It  is  the 
outpouring  of  the  Christian  love  of  the  old  Apostle  to 
a  brother  about  whom  we  know  nothing  else  except 
that  John,  the  beloved,  loved  him  in  the  truth.  And 
this  prayer — for  it  is  a  prayer  rather  than  a  mere 
wish,  since  a  good  man  like  John  turned  all  his  wishes 
into  prayers — this  prayer  in  the  original  is  even  more 
emphatic  and  beautiful  than  in  our  version.  '  Beloved, 
I  pray  that  in  all  things  thou  mayest  prosper  and  be  in 
health,  even  as  thy  soul  prospereth,'  says  the  Revised 
Version,  and  that  slight  change  in  the  position  of  one 
clause  is  at  once  felt  to  be  an  improvement.  We  can 
scarcely  suppose  an  Apostle  praying  for  anybody  'above 
all  things '  that  he  might  get  on  in  the  world.  But  the 
wish  that  Gains  may  prosper  outwardly  in  all  things, 
as  his  soul  prospers,  is  eminently  worthy  of  John.  He 
sets  these  two  types  of  prosperity  over  against  one 
another,  and  says,  *  My  wish  for  you  is  that  you  may 
be  as  prosperous  and  robust  in  spiritual  matters  as  you 
are  in  bodily  and  material  things.' 

I.  Now  note  in  the  first  place,  What  makes  a  pros- 
perous soul?  That  question  might  be  answered  in  a 
great  variety  of  ways,  but  I  purpose  for  the  present  to 
answer  it  by  confining  myself  to  this  letter,  and  seeing 
what  we  can  find  out  about  the  man  to  whom  it  was 
addressed.  '  I  rejoiced  greatly  when  the  brethren  came 
and  testified  of  the  truth  that  is  in  thee.'  There  is  the 
starting-point  of  true  health  of  soul.    That  soul,  and 

64 


V.3]  A  PROSPEROUS  SOUL  55 

only  that  soul,  is  prosperous,  in  which  what  the  Apostle 
calls  here  '  the  truth '  is  lodged  and  rooted ;  and  by  '  the 
truth '  he  means,  of  course,  the  whole  great  revelation 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  eminently  Jesus  Christ 
Himself  who  is  the  embodied  Truth.  Whether  we  take 
the  phrase  as  meaning  the  abiding  of  Jesus  Christ  in 
the  heart,  or  whether  we  take  it  as  meaning  more 
simply  the  incorporation  into  the  very  substance  of 
the  being,  of  the  motives  and  principles  that  lie  in  the 
Gospel,  comes  to  pretty  much  the  same  thing.  The  one 
thing  which  makes  a  man's  soul  healthy  is  to  get  Jesus 
Christ  into  it.  That  acts  like  an  amulet  that  banishes 
all  diseases  and  corruptions.  That  is  like  the  preserving 
salt  which,  rubbed  into  a  perishable  substance,  arrests 
corruption  and  makes  food  sweet  and  savoury.  It  is 
the  engrafted  word  that  is  able  to  save  the  soul,  and 
howsoever  many  other  things  may  contribute  to  the 
inner  well-being  and  prosperity  of  a  man,  such  as  intel- 
lectual acquirements,  refined  tastes,  the  gratification 
of  pure  affections,  the  fulfilment  of  innocent  and  legiti- 
mate hopes,  and  the  like,  the  one  thing  that  makes  the 
soul  prosperous  is  to  have  Christ  in  His  word  deeply 
planted  and  inseparably  enshrined  in  its  personality 
and  being. 

And  how  is  that  enshrining  to  be  brought  about? 
Alas,  we  all  know  the  way  a  great  deal  better  than  we 
practise  it.  The  prosperous  soul  is  the  soul  that  has 
opened  itself  in  docile  obedience  for  the  entrance  of  the 
quickening  and  cleansing  word.  And  just  as  a  flower 
will  open  its  calyx  in  the  sunshine,  and  being  opened 
by  the  sunshine  playing  upon  its  elastic  filaments,  will, 
because  it  is  opened,  receive  into  itself  the  sun  that 
opened  it  and  so  grow ;  in  like  manner,  that  heart  that 
disparts  itself  at  the  touch  of  Christ's  hand,  and  wel- 


56  III.  JOHN  [OH.  I. 

comes  Him  into  the  inner  chambers  and  shrine  of  its 
being,  will  find  that  where  He  comes  He  brings  warmth 
and  fragrance  and  growth  and  all  blessing.  The  pros- 
perous soul  is  the  Christ-inhabited  soul.  By  willing 
reception,  by  patient  waiting,  by  the  study  of  God's 
word,  by  the  endeavour  to  bring  ourselves  more  and 
more  under  the  influence  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
does  that  truth  that  makes  prosperity  take  up  its  abode 
within  us. 

But  the  letter  gives  another  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  truly  prosperous  and  healthy  soul.  *  Thy  brethren 
came  and  testified  of  the  truth  that  is  in  thee,  even  as 
thou  walkest  in  the  truth.'  The  Apostle  is  not  afraid 
of  a  confusion  of  metaphors  which  shocks  sticklers  for 
rhetorical  propriety.  The  truth  is,  first  of  all,  regarded 
as  being  in  the  man ;  and  then  it  is  regarded  as  being 
a  road  on  which,  and  within  the  limits  of  which  he 
walks,  or  an  atmosphere  in  which  he  moves.  The 
incongruity  is  no  real  incongruity,  but  it  strikingly 
brings  out  the  great  and  blessed  fact  of  the  Gospel  that 
the  man  who  has  the  grace  of  God,  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,  within  him,  thereby  finds  that  there  is  prepared 
for  him  a  path  within  the  limits  of  that  truth  in  which 
he  can  safely  walk.  There  will  be  progress  if  there  be 
prosperity.  The  prosperous  spirit  is  the  active  and 
advancing  spirit,  not  content  merely  with  sitting  and 
saying,  •  I  have  the  truth  in  my  soul.  Thy  word  have 
I  hid  in  my  heart  that  I  sin  not  against  Thee';  but 
recognising  that  that  truth  is  the  law  of  his  life,  and 
prescribes  for  him  a  course  of  conduct.  The  prosperous 
soul  is  the  soul  that  confines  its  activity  within  the 
fence  which  '  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,'  who  is  the 
pattern,  and  the  motive,  and  the  law,  and  the  power, 
has  laid  down  for  us ;  and  within  those  limits  makes 


V.2]  A  PROSPEROUS  SOUL  57 

daily  and  hourly  advance  to  a  more  entire  conformity 
with  the  example  of  the  Lord.  The  prosperous  soul  is 
the  soul  that  walks — not  that  sits  idle — for  action  is  the 
end  of  thought,  and  the  purpose  of  the  truth  is  to  make 
men  good,  and  not  meroiy  wise — a  soul  that  acts  and 
advances,  yet  never  passing  out  of  the  atmosphere  of 
the  Gospel,  nor  going  beyond  the  principles  and  motives 
that  are  laid  down  there. 

There  is  a  third  characteristic  in  this  letter,  which 
we  may  also  take  for  an  illustration  of  the  Apostle's 
idea.  For  he  says :  '  Thou  doest  faithfully  whatsoever 
thou  doest.' 

Now  'faithfully'  is  not  here  used  in  the  sense  of 
righteously  discharging  all  obligations  and  fulfilling 
one's  stewardship,  but  it  means  something  deeper  than 
that.  The  root  idea  is  'whatever  thou  doest  thou 
doest  as  a  work  of  Christian  faith ' ;  or,  to  put  it  into 
other  words,  the  prosperous  soul  is  the  soul  all  whose 
activity  is  based  upon  that  one  great  truth  made  its 
own  by  faith,  that  Jesus  Christ  loves  it,  and  so  is  all 
the  result  of  trust  in  Him.  Faith  in  Christ  is  the 
mother-tincture,  out  of  which  every  virtue  can  be  com- 
pounded, according  to  the  liquid  to  which  you  add  it. 
The  basis  of  all,  the  *  stock '  from  which  all  the  rest  ia 
really  made,  is  the  act  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  And 
so  the  prosperous  soul  is  the  soul  that  has  the  truth  in 
it,  and  walks  in  the  truth  which  it  has,  and  does  every- 
thing because  it  trusts  in  the  living  God  and  in  Jesus 
Christ  His  Son. 

Is  that  your  notion  of  the  ideal  of  human  nature,  of 
the  true  and  noble  prosperity  of  an  immortal  spirit? 
Unless  it  be  you  have  yet  to  learn  the  loftiest  elevation 
and  the  fairest  beauty  that  are  possible  for  men.  The 
prosperous  soul  filled  with  Christ  within,  and  walking 


58  III.  JOHN  [CH.L 

with  Christ  by  its  side,  and  drawing  laws  and  motives, 
pattern  and  power  from  Him,  is  the  soul  that  truly 
has  fulfilled  its  ideal,  and  is  journeying  on  the  right 
road.  For  that  is  the  literal  meaning  of  the  word  that 
is  rendered  here  'prosper';  journeying  on  the  right 
road  to  the  true  goal  of  human  nature. 

11.  Look  at  the  wished-for  correspondence  between 
this  soul-prosperity  and  outward  prosperity.  '  Beloved,' 
says  John,  *  I  wish  above  all  things,'  or  rather, '  I  wish 
that  in  regard  to  all  things,  thou  mayest  prosper  and 
be  in  health  as  thy  soul  prospereth.' 

How  would  you  like  that  standard  applied  to  your 
worldly  prosperity  ?  Would  you  like  not  to  get  on  any 
better  in  business  than  you  do  in  religion  ?  Would  you 
be  content  that  your  limbs  should  be  no  more  healthy 
than  your  soul,  or  that  you  should  be  making  no  more 
advances  in  worldly  happiness  and  material  prosperity 
than  you  are  in  the  Divine  life  ?  Would  you  be  content 
to  have  your  worldly  prosperity  doled  out  to  you  out 
of  the  same  spoon,  of  the  same  dimensions,  with  which 
you  are  content  to  receive  your  spiritual  prosperity? 
'  As  thy  soul  prospereth ' — that  would  mean  a  very 
Lenten  diet  for  a  good  many  of  us,  and  a  very  near 
approach  to  insolvency  for  some  commercial  men. 
Brethren,  there  is  a  sharp  test  in  these  words.  I 
suppose  this  good  Gains  to  whom  the  letter  was  written 
was  very  likely  in  humble  circumstances,  and  not  im- 
probably in  enfeebled  health.  And  John  was  probably 
wishing  for  him  more  than  he  had,  when  he  wished 
him  to  get  on  as  well  in  the  world  as  he  did  in  his 
spiritual  life,  and  desired  that  his  soul  might  prosper  as 
much  as  his  body.  It  would  be  a  bad  thing  for  some  of 
us  if  the  same  standard  of  proportion  were  applied  to  us. 

Another  consideration  is  suggested  by  this   corre- 


V.  2]  A  PROSPEROUS  SOUL  50 

spondence,  and  that  is  that  it  is  always  a  disastrous 
thing  for  Christian  people  when  outward  prosperity 
gets  ahead  of  inward.  It  is  the  ruin  of  a  good  many 
so-called  Christian  people.  When  a  man  gets  on  in  the 
world  he  begins,  too  often,  to  decline  in  the  truth.  It 
is  difficult  for  us  to  carry  a  full  cup  without  spilling  it. 
And  the  worst  thing  that  could  happen  to  many 
Christian  people  would  be  what  they  fret,  and  fume, 
and  work  themselves  into  a  fever,  and  live  careful  days 
and  sleepless  nights  in  order  to  secure — and  that  is, 
outward  prosperity.  The  best  thing  is  that  the  soul 
should  be  more  prosperous  than  the  body,  and  the 
worst  adversity  is  the  outward  prosperity  that  ruins  or 
harms  the  inward  life. 

III.  So,  lastly,  note  the  superiority  of  the  inward 
prosperity.  There  is  no  overstrained  spiritualism  here. 
John  has  set  us  an  example  that  we  need  not  be  afraid 
to  follow.  If  he  that  leaned  upon  Christ's  bosom,  and 
had  drunk  in  more  of  the  spirit  of  his  Master  than  any 
of  the  Twelve,  was  not  afraid  to  pray  for  this  good 
brother  that  he  might  have  worldly  good  and  health, 
we  need  not  doubt  that  for  ourselves,  and  for  those 
that  are  dear  to  us,  it  is  perfectly  legitimate  and  right 
that  we  should  desire  and  pray  for  both  things.  There 
is  no  unnatural,  artificial,  hypocritical  pretence  of 
despising  the  present  and  the  outward  in  the  words 
here.  Although  the  Apostle  does  put  the  two  things 
side  by  side,  he  does  not  fall  into  the  error  of  casting 
contempt  upon  either.  He  is  a  true  disciple  of  the 
Master  who  said,  *  Your  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have 
need  of  these  things.'  And  if  your  Father  knows  that 
you  have  need,  then  you  may  be  quite  sure  that  you 
will  get  them,  and  it  is  a  lie  to  pretend  that  you  do  not 
want  them  when  you  do. 


60  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

But  then,  that  being  admitted,  look  how  the  higher 
towers  above  the  legitimate  lower.  It  will  always  be 
the  case  that  if  a  man  seeks  first  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  His  righteousness,  there  will  be— in  his  simple 
devotion  to  the  truth,  and  walking  within  the  limits 
that  it  prescribes,  and  making  all  his  life  an  act  of 
faith — a  direct  tendency  in  a  great  many  directions  to 
secure  the  best  possible  use,  and  the  largest  possible 
enjoyment,  from  the  things  that  are  seen  and  temporal. 
'  Godliness  hath  promise  of  the  life  which  now  is ' ;  and 
the  first  Psalm,  which  perhaps  may  have  been  in  the 
Apostle's  mind  here,  contains  a  truth  that  was  not 
exhausted  in  the  Old  Testament  days,  because  the  man 
whose  heart  is  set  on  the  law  of  God,  and  who  medi- 
tates upon  that  law  day  and  night,  all  that  he  doeth 
shall  prosper.  There  is  in  godliness  a  distinct  and 
constant  tendency  to  make  the  best  of  both  worlds ; 
but  the  best  is  not  made  of  the  present  world  unless 
we  subordinate  it  and  feel  distinctly  its  insignificance 
in  comparison  with  the  future,  which  is  also  the  present, 
unseen  world. 

And  even  when,  as  is  often  the  case,  the  devout  and 
inwardly  prosperous  soul  is  compassed  about  with 
sorrows  that  never  can  be  stanched,  with  griefs  through 
which  anything  but  an  immortal  life  would  bleed  itself 
away ;  or  with  poverty  and  want  and  anxiety  arising 
from  causes  which  no  personal  devotion  can  ever  touch 
or  affect — even  then  if  the  soul  prospers  it  has  the 
power,  the  magic  power,  of  converting  poison  into 
food,  and  sorrow  into  a  means  of  growth;  and  they 
whose  spirits  are  joined  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  whose 
souls  ever  move  in  harmony  with  Him — and  therefore 
are  prosperous  souls — will  find  that  there  is  nothing  in 
this  world  that  is  really  adverse  to  them.    For  'all 


▼.2]    FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  THE  NAME      61 

things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,' 
since  he  who  loves  God  thinks  nothing  bad  that  helps 
him  to  love  Him  better ;  and  since  he  who  loves  God 
finds  occasion  for  loving  and  trusting  Him  more  in 
every  variety  and  vicissitude  of  earthly  fortune. 

Therefore,  brethren,  if  we  will  follow  the  directions 
that  this  Apostle  gives  us  as  to  how  to  secure  the 
prosperity  of  our  souls,  God  is  faithful  and  He  will 
measure  to  us  prosperity  in  regard  of  outward  things 
by  the  proportion  which  our  faith  in  Him  bears  to  His 
faithfulness.  The  more  we  love  Him,  the  more  cer- 
tainly will  all  things  be  our  servants.  If  we  can  say 
•  We  are  Christ's,'  then  all  things  are  ours. 


FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  THE  NAME 

'  For  His  name's  sake.'— 3  John  7. 

The  Revised  Version  gives  the  true  force  of  these  words 
by  omitting  the  '  His,'  and  reading  merely  '  for  the  sake 
of  the  Name.'  There  is  no  need  to  say  whose  name. 
There  is  only  One  which  could  evoke  the  heroism  and 
self-sacrifice  of  which  the  Apostle  is  speaking.  The  ex- 
pression, however,  is  a  remarkable  one.  The  name 
seems  almost,  as  it  were,  to  be  personified.  There  are 
one  or  two  other  instances  in  the  New  Testament 
where  the  same  usage  is  found,  according  to  the  true 
reading,  though  it  is  obscured  in  our  Authorised 
Version,  because  it  struck  some  early  transcribers  as 
being  strange,  and  so  they  tried  to  mend  and  thereby 
spoiled  it. 

We  read,  for  instance,  in  the  true  reading,  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  as  to  the  disciples,  on  the  first 
burst  of  persecution,  that  'they  rejoiced  that  they 


62  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the  Name.' 
And  again,  in  Philippians,  that  in  recompense  and 
reward  for  '  His  obedience  unto  death ' — the  Father 
hath  given  unto  the  Son — '  the  Name  which  is  above 
every  name.'  Once  more,  though  less  obviously,  we 
find  James  speaking  about '  the  worthy  name  by  which 
we  are  called.' 

Then  the  other  part  of  this  phrase  is  quite  as  signi- 
ficant as  this  principal  one.  The  word  rendered  'for 
the  sake  of,'  does  not  merely  mean — though  it  does 
mean  that — '  on  account  of,'  or  '  by  reason  of,'  but '  on 
behalf  of,'  as  if,  in  some  wonderful  sense,  that  mighty 
and  exalted  Name  was  furthered,  advantaged,  or 
benefited  by  even  men's  poor  services.  So,  you  see, 
a  minute  study  of  the  mere  words  of  the  Scripture, 
though  it  may  seem  like  grammatical  trifling  and 
pedantry,  yields  large  results.  Men  do  sometimes 
'  gather  grapes  of  thorns ' ;  and  the  hard,  dry  work  of 
trying  to  get  at  the  precise  shade  of  meaning  in  Scrip- 
tural words  always  repays  us  with  large  lessons  and 
impulses.  So  let  us  consider  the  thoughts  which 
naturally  arise  from  the  accurate  observation  of  the 
very  language  here. 

I.  And,  first,  let  us  consider  the  pre-eminence 
implied  in  '  the  Name.' 

Now  I  need  not  do  more  than  remind  you  in  a  sen- 
tence that  eminently  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  also  in 
the  New,  a  name  is  a  great  deal  more  than  the  syllables 
which  designate  a  person  or  a  thing.  It  describes,  not 
only  who  a  man  is,  but  what  he  is  ;  and  implies  qualities, 
characteristics,  either  bodily  or  spiritual,  which  were 
either  discerned  in  or  desired  for  a  person.  So  when 
the  creatures  are  brought  to  Adam  that  he  might  give 
them  names,  that  expresses  the  thought  of  the  primitive 


T.7]    FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  THE  NAME     63 

man's  insight  into  their  nature  and  characteristics. 
So  we  find  our  Lord  changing  the  names  of  His  dis- 
ciples, in  some  cases  in  order  to  express  either  the  deep 
qualities  which  His  eye  discerned  lying  beneath  the 
more  superficial  ones,  and  to  be  evolved  in  due  time,  or 
declaring  some  great  purpose  which  He  had  for  them, 
official  or  otherwise. 

So  here  the  name  substantially  means  the  same 
thing  as  the  Person  Jesus.  It  is  not  the  syllables  by 
which  He  is  called,  but  the  whole  character  and  nature 
of  Him  who  is  called  by  these  syllables,  that  is  meant 
by  •  the  Name.'  The  distinction  between  it,  as  so  used, 
and  Person,  is  simply  that  the  former  puts  more  stress 
on  the  qualities  and  characteristics  as  known  to  us. 

Thus  '  the  Name '  means  the  whole  Christ  as  we 
know  Him,  or  as  we  may  know  Him,  from  the  Book, 
in  the  dignity  of  His  Messiahship,  in  the  mystery  of 
His  Divinity,  in  the  sweetness  of  His  life,  in  the  depth 
of  His  words,  in  the  gentleness  of  His  heart,  in  the 
patience  and  propitiation  of  His  sacrifice,  in  the  might 
of  His  resurrection,  in  the  glory  of  His  ascension,  in 
the  energy  of  His  present  life  and  reigning  work  for 
us  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  All  these,  the  central 
facts  of  the  Gospel,  are  gathered  together  into  that 
expression  the  Name,  which  is  the  summing  up  in  one 
mighty  word,  so  to  speak,  which  it  is  not  possible  for 
a  man  to  utter  except  in  fragments,  of  all  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  in  Himself,  and  of  all  that  He  is  and  does 
for  us. 

It  is  but  a  picturesque  and  condensed  way  of  saying 
that  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  depth  of  His  nature  and  the 
width  of  His  work,  stands  alone,  and  is  the  single, 
because  the  all-sufficient.  Object  of  love  and  trust  and 
obedience.      There  is  no  need  for  a  forest   of   little 


64  III.  JOHN  [CH.  I. 

pillars;  as  in  some  great  chapter-house  one  central 
shaft,  graceful  as  strong,  bears  the  groined  roof,  and 
makes  all  other  supports  unnecessary  and  impertinent. 
There  is  one  Name,  and  one  alone,  because  in  the 
depths  of  that  wondrous  nature,  in  the  circumference 
of  that  mighty  work,  there  is  all  that  a  human  heart, 
or  that  all  human  hearts,  can  need  for  peace,  for  noble- 
ness, for  holiness,  for  the  satisfaction  of  all  desires,  for 
the  direction  of  efforts,  for  the  stability  of  their  being. 
The  name  stands  alone,  and  it  will  be  the  only  Name 
that,  at  last,  shall  blaze  upon  the  page  of  the  world's 
history  when  the  ages  are  ended ;  and  the  chronicles 
of  earth,  with  the  brief  '  immortality '  which  they  gave 
to  other  names  of  illustrious  men,  are  moulded  into 
dust.  '  The  Name  is  above  every  name,'  and  will  out- 
last them  all,  for  it  is  the  all-sufficient  and  encyclo- 
paedical embodiment  of  everything  that  a  single 
heart,  or  the  whole  race,  can  require,  desire,  conceive, 
or  attain. 

So  then,  brethren,  the  uniqueness  and  solitariness 
of  the  name  demands  an  equal  and  corresponding  ex- 
clusiveness  of  devotion  and  trust  in  us.  'Hear,  O 
Israel!  The  Lord  thy  God  is  one  Lord.  Therefore 
thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and 
with  all  thy  mind.'  And  in  like  manner  we  may  argue 
— There  is  one  Christ,  and  there  is  none  other  but  He. 
Therefore  all  the  current  of  my  being  is  to  set  to  Him, 
and  on  Him  alone  am  I  to  repose  my  undivided  weight, 
casting  all  my  cares  and  putting  all  my  trust  only  on 
Him.  Lean  on  none  other.  You  cannot  lean  too 
heavily  on  that  strong  arm.  Love  none  other  except 
in  Him ;  for  His  heart  is  wide  enough  and  deep 
enough  for  all  mankind.    Obey  none  other,  for  only  His 


V.7]     FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  THE  NAME     65 

voice  has  the  right  to  command.  And  lifting  up  our 
eyes,  let  us  see  '  no  man  any  more  save  Jesus  only.* 
That  Name  stands  alone. 

Involved  in  this,  but  worthy  of  briefly  putting 
separately,  is  this  other  thought,  that  the  pre-eminent 
and  exclusive  mention  of  the  Name  carries  with  it,  in 
fair  inference,  the  declaration  of  His  Divine  nature. 
It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  here  a  clear  casein  which 
the  Old  Testament  usage  is  transferred  to  Jesus  Christ, 
only,  instead  of  the  Name  being  Jehovah,  it  is  Jesus. 
It  seems  to  me  impossible  that  a  man  saturated  as  this 
Apostle  was  with  Old  Testament  teaching,  and  familiar 
as  he  was  with  the  usage  which  runs  through  it  as  to 
the  sanctity  of  '  the  Name  of  the  Lord,'  should  have 
used  such  language  as  this  of  my  text  unless  he  had 
felt,  as  he  has  told  us  himself,  that  'the  Word  was 
God.'  And  the  very  incidental  character  of  the  allusion 
gives  it  the  more  force  as  a  witness  to  the  common- 
placeness  which  the  thought  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  had  assumed  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

II.  But  passing  from  that,  let  me  ask  you  to  look, 
secondly,  at  the  power  of  the  Name  to  sway  the  life. 

I  have  explained  the  full  meaning  of  the  preposition 
in  my  text  in  my  introductory  remarks.  It  seems  to 
me  to  cover  both  the  ground  of  *  on  account  of,'  or  *  by 
reason  of,'  and  '  on  behalf  of.' 

Taking  the  word  in  the  former  of  these  two  senses, 
note  how  this  phrase,  'for  the  sake  of  the  Name,' 
carries  with  it  this  principle,  that  in  that  Name,  ex- 
plained as  I  have  done,  there  lie  all  the  forces  that  are 
needed  for  the  guidance  and  the  impulses  of  life.  In 
Him,  in  the  whole  fulness  of  His  being,  in  the  wonders 
of  the  story  of  His  character  and  historical  manifesta- 

B 


66  III.  JOHN  [CH.  I. 

tion,  there  lies  all  guidance  for  men.  He  is  the  Pattern 
of  our  conduct.  He  is  the  Companion  for  us  in  our 
sorrow.  He  is  the  Quickener  for  us  in  all  our  tasks. 
And  to  set  Him  before  us  as  our  Pattern,  and  to  walk 
in  the  paths  that  He  dictates,  is  to  attain  to  perfection. 
Whosoever  makes  '  for  the  sake  of  the  Name  *  the 
motto  of  his  life  will  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall 
have  the  light  of  life. 

And  not  only  is  there  guidance,  but  there  is  impulse, 
and  that  is  better  than  guidance.  For  what  men 
most  of  all  want  is  a  power  that  shall  help  or  make 
them  to  do  the  things  that  they  see  plainly  enough  to 
be  right. 

And  oh,  brother,  where  is  there  such  a  force  to 
quicken,  to  ennoble,  to  lead  men  to  higher  selves  than 
their  dead  past  selves,  as  lies  in  the  grand  sweep  of 
that  historical  manifestation  which  we  understand  by 
the  Name  of  Jesus?  There  is  nothing  else  that  will 
go  so  deep  down  into  the  heart  and  unseal  the  foun- 
tains of  power  and  obedience  as  that  Name.  There  is 
nothing  else  that  will  so  strike  the  shackles  off  the 
prisoned  will,  and  ban  back  to  their  caves  the  wild 
beasts  that  tyrannise  within,  and  put  the  chain  round 
their  necks,  as  the  Name  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  the 
Talisman  that  ennobles  everything,  that  evokes  un- 
dreamed-of powers,  that  *  out  of  these  stones,'  the 
hard  and  unsusceptible  and  obstinate  wills  of  godless 
men,  will  'raise  up  children  unto  Abraham.'  This  is 
the  secret  that  turns  the  heavy  lead  of  our  corrupt 
natures  into  pure  gold. 

And  where  does  the  impulsive  power  lie?  Where, 
in  that  great  continent,  the  whole  life  and  work  of 
Jesus  Christ,  is  the  dominant  summit  from  which  the 
streams  run  down?     The  Cross!     The  Cross  I     The 


T.7]     FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  THE  NAME      67 

Love  that  died  for  us,  individually  and  singly,  as  well 
as  collectively,  is  the  thing  that  draws  out  answering 
love.  And  answering  love  is  the  untiring  and  omnipo- 
tent power  that  transmutes  my  whole  nature  into  the 
humble  aspiration  to  be  like  Him  who  has  given  Him- 
self for  me,  and  to  render  back  myself  unto  Him  for 
His  gift.  Brother,  if  you  have  not  known  the  Name  of 
Christ  as  the  Name  of  the  Divine  Saviour  who  died  on 
the  Cross  for  you,  you  do  not  yet  understand  the 
power  to  transform,  to  ennoble,  to  energise,  to  impel 
to  all  self-sacrifice  that  lies  in  that  Name.  In  the  fact 
of  His  death,  and  in  the  consequent  fact  of  the  com- 
munication of  life  from  Him  to  each  of  us  if  we  will, 
lie  the  great  impulses  which  will  blessedly  and  strongly 
carry  us  along  the  course  which  He  marks  out  for  us. 
And  they  who  can  say  '  For  the  sake  of  the  Name '  will 
live  lives  calm,  harmonious,  noble,  and  in  some  humble 
measure  conformed  to  the  serene  and  transcendent 
beauty  to  which  they  bow  and  on  which  they  rest. 
The  impulse  for  a  life — the  only  one  that  will  last,  and 
the  only  one  that  will  lift — lies  in  the  recognition  of 
the  Name.  And  so,  let  me  remind  you  how  our  con- 
sequent simple  duty  is  honestly,  earnestly,  prayerfully, 
always,  to  try  to  keep  ourselves  under  the  influence  of 
that  sweet  compulsion  and  mighty  encouragement 
which  lie  in  the  Name  of  Jesus  Christ.  How  frag- 
mentary, how  interrupted,  how  imperfect  at  the  best 
are  our  yieldings  to  the  power  and  the  sweetness  of 
the  motives  and  pattern  given  to  us  in  Christ's  Name ! 
How  much  of  our  lives  would  be  all  the  same  if  Jesus 
Christ  never  had  come,  or  if  we  never  had  believed  in 
Him !  Look  back  over  your  days,  Christian  men,  and 
see  how  little  of  them  has  borne  that  stamp,  and  how 
slightly  it  has  been  impressed  upon  them. 


68  III.  JOHN  ,    [CH.I. 

Our  whole  life  ought  to  be  filled  with  His  Name. 
You  can  write  it  anywhere.  It  does  not  need  a  gold 
plate  to  carve  His  Name  upon.  It  does  not  need  to  be 
set  in  jewels  and  diamonds.  The  poorest  scrap  of  brown 
paper,  and  the  bluntest  little  bit  of  pencil,  and  the 
shakiest  hand,  will  do  to  write  the  Name  of  Christ; 
and  all  life,  the  trivialities  as  well  as  the  crises,  may  be 
flashing  and  bright  with  the  sacred  syllables.  Moham- 
medans decorate  their  palaces  and  mosques  with 
no  pictures,  but  with  the  name  of  Allah,  in  gilded 
arabesques.  Everywhere,  on  walls  and  roof,  and 
windows  and  cornices,  and  pillars  and  furniture,  the 
name  is  written.  There  is  no  such  decoration  for  a 
life  as  that  Christ's  Name  should  be  inscribed  thereon. 

III.  Lastly,  notice  the  service  that  even  we  can  do 
to  the  Name. 

That,  as  I  said,  is  the  direct  idea  of  the  Apostle  here. 
He  is  speaking  about  a  very  small  matter.  There 
were  some  anonymous  Christian  people  who  had  gone 
out  on  a  little  missionary  tour,  and  in  the  course  of  it, 
penniless  and  homeless,  they  had  come  to  a  city  the 
name  of  which  we  do  not  know,  and  had  been  taken 
in  and  kindly  entertained  by  a  Christian  brother, 
whose  name  has  been  preserved  to  us  in  this  one 
letter.  And,  says  John,  these  humble  men  went  out 
*  on  behalf  of  the  Name' — to  do  something  to  further 
it,  to  advantage  it !  Jesus  Christ,  the  bearer  of  the 
Name,  was  in  some  sense  helped  and  benefited,  if  I 
may  use  the  word,  by  the  work  of  these  lowly  and 
unknown  brethren. 

Now  there  are  one  or  two  other  instances  in  the 
New  Testament  where  this  same  idea  of  the  benefit 
accruing  to  the  name  of  Jesus  from  His  servants  on 
earth  is  stated,  and  I  just  point  to  them  in  a  sentence 


V.7]     FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  THE  NAME      69 

in  order  that  you  may  have  all  the  evidence  before 
you.  There  is  the  passage  to  which  I  have  already 
referred,  recording  the  disciples'  joy  that  they  were 
'accounted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  on  behalf  of  the 
Name.'  There  are  the  words  of  Christ  Himself  in 
reference  to  Paul  at  his  conversion,  '  I  will  shew  him 
how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for  My  Name's  sake.' 
There  is  the  church's  eulogium  on  Barnabas  and  Paul, 
as  '  men  that  have  hazarded  their  lives  for  the  Name 
of  our  Lord  Jesus.'  There  is  Paul's  declaration  that 
he  is  '  ready,  not  only  to  be  bound,  but  to  die,  on 
behalf  of  the  Name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.'  And  in  the 
introduction  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  he  connects 
his  apostleship  with  the  benefit  that  thereby  accrued 
to  the  Name  of  Christ.  If  we  put  all  these  together 
they  just  come  to  this,  that,  wonderful  as  it  is,  and 
unworthy  as  we  are  to  take  that  great  Name  into  our 
lips,  yet,  in  God's  infinite  mercy  and  Christ's  fraternal 
and  imperial  love,  He  has  appointed  that  His  Name 
should  be  furthered  by  the  sufferings,  the  service,  the 
life,  and  the  death  of  His  followers. 

*  He  was  extolled  with  my  tongue,'  says  the  Psalmist, 
in  a  rapture  of  wonder  that  any  words  of  his  could 
exalt  God's  Name.  So  to  you  Christians  is  committed 
the  charge  of  magnifying  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
You  can  do  it  by  your  lives,  and  you  can  do  it  by  your 
words,  and  you  are  sent  to  do  both.  We  can  '  adorn 
the  doctrine ' ;  paint  the  lily  and  gild  the  refined  gold, and 
make  men  think  more  highly  of  our  Lord  by  our  example 
of  faithfulness  and  obedience.  We  can  do  it  by  our 
definite  proclamation  of  His  Name,  which  is  laid  upon 
us  all  to  do,  and  for  which  facilities  of  varying  degrees 
are  granted.  The  inconsistencies  of  the  professing 
followers  of  Christ  are  the  strongest  barriers  to  the 


70  III.  JOHN  [OH.  I. 

world's  belief  in  the  glory  of  His  Name.  The  Church 
as  it  is  forms  the  hindrance  rather  than  the  help  to  the 
world's  becoming  a  church.  If  from  us  sounded  out 
the  Name,  and  over  all  that  we  did  it  was  written, 
blazing,  conspicuous,  the  world  would  look  and  listen, 
and  men  would  believe  that  there  was  something  in 
the  Gospel. 

If  you  are  a  Christian  professor,  either  Christ  is 
glorified  or  put  to  shame  in  you,  His  saint ;  and  either 
it  is  true  of  you  that  you  do  all  things  in  the  Name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  so  glorify  His  Name,  or  that 
through  you  the  Name  of  Christ  is  'blasphemed 
among  the  nations.'  Choose  which  of  the  two  it 
shall  be  1 


FELLOW- WORKERS  WITH  THE  TRUTH 

•  That  we  might  be  f ellow-helpera  to  the  truth,'— 3  John  8. 

'  Fellow-helpers  to  the  Truth.'  A  word  or  two  may 
be  permitted  as  to  the  immediate  occasion  of  the 
expression.  There  seems  to  have  been,  as  we  learn  not 
only  from  occasional  references  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  from  early  Christian  literature,  and  very  frequent 
practice  in  the  primitive  churches,  of  certain  members 
having,  like  our  friends  the  Quakers,  'a  concern'  for 
some  special  ministry,  and  being  loosed  from  their 
ordinary  avocations,  and  sent  out  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Church.  These  travelling  evangelists  went  from 
place  to  place,  and  sought  the  hospitality  and  help  of 
the  Christian  communities  to  which  they  came.  My 
text  is  an  exhortation  from  the  aged  Apostle  to  treat 


T.8]  FELLOW-WORKERS  WITH  TRUTH  71 

such  brethren  as  they  deserved,  seeing  that  they  have 
•  come  forth  for  the  sake  of  the  Name ' ;  and  should  be 
welcomed  and  helped  as  brethren. 

Now  there  are  ambiguities  about  the  words,  on  which 
I  need  not  dwell.  So  far  as  the  grammatical  construc- 
tion of  the  originals  are  concerned,  they  may  either 
mean  what  our  Authorised  Version  takes  them  to 
mean,  'fellow-helpers' — or  rather  ' iellow-worikers' — for 
the  Truth ;  the  co-operation  being  regarded  as  confined 
to  the  two  sets  of  men,  the  evangelists  and  their 
hospitable  receivers — or  they  may  mean,  as  the  Kevised 
Version  takes  them,  '  fellow-workers  with  the  Truth ' — 
•the  Truth'  and  the  two  sets  of  human  agents  being 
all  supposed  as  co-operating  in  one  common  end.  The 
latter  is,  I  presume,  the  real  meaning  of  the  Evangelist. 
'The  Truth '  is  supposed  to  be  an  active  force  in  the  world, 
which  both  the  men  who  directly  preach  it,  and  the  men 
who  sustain  and  cheer  those  who  do,  are  co-operating 
with.  Then  there  is  another  question  as  to  whether,  by 
'  the  Truth '  here,  we  are  to  understand  the  whole  body 
of  Christian  revelation,  or  whether  we  are  to  see  shin- 
ing through  the  words  the  august  figure  of  Him  who  is 
personally,  as  He  Himself  claimed, '  the  Way,  and  the 
Truth,  and  the  Life.'  I  believe  that  the  latter  explana- 
tion is  the  truer  one,  and  more  in  accordance  with  the 
intense  saturation  in  all  John's  writings  with  the  words 
of  the  Master.  I  can  scarcely  think  that  when  he  sjjoke 
thus  about  'the  Truth,' or  when  he  spoke  in  another 
of  his  letters  about  the  'Truth  which  dwelleth  in  us, 
and  shall  be  in  us  for  ever,'  he  meant  only  a  body 
of  principles.  I  think  he  meant  Jesus  Christ  Him- 
self. And  so  with  that  sacred  and  auguster  meaning 
attaching  to  his  words,  I  wish  to  look  at  them 
with  you. 


72  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

I.  The  possessors  of  the  Truth  are  to  be  workers  with 
the  Truth. 

I  do  not  say  a  word  about  the  claim  which  is  made  in 
this  expression,  that  Christian  people  possess  the  ab- 
solute truth  in  regard  to  all  matters  upon  which  the 
revelation  made  to  them  in  Jesus  Christ  touches. 
That  is  a  bold  assumption,  but  I  do  not  need  to  say  a 
word  about  it  here.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  you 
professing  Christians  concur  in  the  belief  that  what 
you  have  received  about  God  and  Christ  and  God's  will 
concerning  men,  and  the  way  of  salvation,  and  the 
prospects  for  the  future  life,  stands  alone  and  complete, 
as  '  the  Truth,'  to  which  all  other  conceptions  of  God 
and  man  and  duty  and  destiny  are  related,  but  as 
fragmentary  at  the  highest,  and  as  often  perversions, 
corruptions,  and  contradictions.  Do  not  let  any 
modern  width  of  thought,  or  any  impressions 
gathered  from  the  new  science  of  comparative  re- 
ligion, blur  the  distinctness  and  the  joyousness  of 
your  confidence  that  in  Christ  we  have  not  a  per- 
adventure  of  men,  but  the  '  Verily !  verily  ! '  of  heaven : 
the  Truth. 

And  then  remember  that,  according  to  the  represen- 
tation of  my  text,  this  Truth,  wherever  it  enters  into  a 
man's  heart,  lays  hold  upon  him,  and  makes  him  its 
apostle.  All  moral  and  spiritual  truth  has  that  power. 
There  are  plenty  of  dry  statements  in  various  regions 
of  science  and  thought  the  reception  of  which  brings 
with  it  no  compulsion  whatever  to  say  a  word  about 
them.  No  man  is  ever  smitten  with  the  conviction  that 
it  is  his  duty  to  go  out  into  the  world  and  proclaim 
that  *  two  and  two  make  four,'  or  truths  of  that  sort. 
But  once  lodge  in  a  man's  heart  thoughts  of  a  moral, 
religious,  spiritual  character,  and  as  soon  as  he  believes 


V.8]  FELLOW- WORKERS  WITH  TRUTH  78 

them  he  wakes  up  to  feel  *  Then  I  must — I  must  proclaim 
them,  and  get  somebody  else  to  share  my  convictions.' 
It  is  the  test  of  real,  deep,  vital  possession  of '  the  Truth ' 
that  it  shall  be  as  a  fire  shut  up  in  our  bones,  burning 
its  way  necessarily  out  into  the  light;  and  that  no  man 
who  has  it  dare  wrap  it  in  a  napkin  and  bury  it  in  the 
ground. 

God  forbid  that  I  should  say  that  a  silent  Christian 
is  not  a  genuine  Christian.  I  know  too  well  how  far 
beneath  the  ideal  we  all  come,  but  sure  I  am  that  if 
men  have  never  found  that  when  '  the  Truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus  '  drew  back  her  veil,  and  let  the  lambent  beauty 
of  her  face  blaze  in  upon  their  hearts,  it  made  them 
her  slaves  and  knight-errants  for  evermore,  they  have 
seen  very  very  little  of  that  supreme  loveliness. 
Brethren !  the  truth  that  we  believe  is  our  mistress, 
and  of  the  Christian  truth  that  we  profess  to  hold,  we 
are  sworn  by  the  very  fact  to  be  the  apostles  and  the 
missioners. 

Nor  let  us  forget  the  solemn  and  elevating  thought 
which  goes  along  with  the  imagery  of  my  text;  that 
the  Truth,  for  all  its  majesty  and  dignity  and  divinity, 
needs  men  for  its  helpers.  The  only  way  by  which  it 
can  spread  is  through  us  and  our  fellows.  There  is  no 
magic  by  which  it  can  divide  and  impart  itself,  apart 
from  the  agency  of  the  men  who  already  possess  it. 
The  torch  has  been  brought  from  heaven,  and  the  light 
with  which  it  blazes  is  celestial,  but  in  order  to  enlighten 
the  darkness  of  the  earth  it  must  be  passed  from  hand 
to  hand  by  a  linked  chain  of  men.  The  lake  lies  full  of 
possible  fertility  and  promise  to  flush  with  green  verdure 
the  barren  burning  desert  sands ;  but  it  will  lie  there, 
its  possible  good  unrealised  for  ever,  unless  men  with 
their  spades  and  excavators  dig  the  channels  and  lead 


74  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

the  heaven-sent  blessing  that  came  from  the  clouds 
into  all  the  barren  places.  The  Truth  needs  us,  but 
when  the  work  is  done  that  the  workers  with  the  Truth 
do,  it  is  the  Truth  and  not  the  workers  that  have  done 
the  work. 

So,  Christian  men  and  women,  I  come  to  you  with 
this  message — recognise  your  dignity,  the  honour  that 
is  laid  upon  you  in  being  allowed  to  be  co-operators 
with  the  gospel  of  the  glory'of  the  blessed  God.  Recog- 
nise the  obligation,  solemn  and  heavy,  which  is  laid 
upon  you  by  the  very  nature  of  the  truth  which  we 
believe,  by  the  common  bonds  of  fellowship  between 
man  and  man,  to  impart  the  message  that  has  brought 
life  to  us ;  and  recognise  it  as  at  once  our  highest 
honour  and  our  widest  duty  to  be  *  fellow- workers  with 
the  Truth.' 

II.  The  companions  of  Christ  are  to  be  workers  with 
Christ. 

He,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  is  the  Incarnate  Truth. 
And  here  we  come  upon  the  especial  peculiarity  of 
Christianity  as  a  system,  considered  in  its  relation  to 
Jesus  Christ,  its  Founder  and  its  Giver.  You  can  take 
Plato's  philosophy  and  do  what  you  like  with  it,  and 
treat  Plato  as  a  negligible  quantity.  You  can  do  the 
same  with  all  other  great  teachers,  even  those  of  them 
who  have  most  impressed  their  own  individuality  upon 
their  thinkings,  and  theorisings,  and  teachings,  but 
you  cannot  do  that  with  Christianity  ;  you  cannot  say, 
'  Never  mind  who  it  was  that  said  it.  Attend  to  what 
was  said.'  For  Jesus  Christ,  and  His  message,  are  so 
interwoven  and  interlaced  in  such  a  fashion  as  that 
you  cannot  get  rid  of  Him,  and  keep  it.  He  Himself  is 
the  Truth.  Christ  is  Christianity;  and  any  man  that 
has  ever  tried  to  deal  with  the  teachings  of  the  New 


V.8]  FELLOW- WORKERS  WITH  TRUTH  75 

Testament  as  a  body  of  principles,  ignoring  the  lips  from 
which  they  came,  is  left  with  what  they  call  a  caput 
mortuum,  a  dead  mass  of  impotent  generalities.  Get 
Christ  into  them,  and  they  are  all  palpitating,  and 
living,  and  flaming,  and  have  power. 

So,  then,  when  I  call  my  brethren,  and  feel  myself 
bound  to  the  task  of  being  *  workers  with  the  Truth,'  it 
is  no  mere  devotion  to  the  propaganda  of  a  creed  that 
I  want  to  urge,  but  it  is  devotion  to  proclaiming  the 
beloved  hand  of  the  person  out  of  whom  the  creed  is 
carved,  and  in  whom  all  the  truth  is  shrined  and 
sphered.  Every  man  that  is  Christ's  companion  is 
thereby  bound  to  be  a  worker  with  the  incarnate 
Truth.  He  needs  our  help.  True,  he  finds  all  the 
capital,  but  we  are  His  partners,  His  representatives 
and  agents  here  on  earth,  as  He  has  taught  us  in  more 
than  one  parable.  The  pound  or  the  talent  is  His ;  it 
is  given  to  me,  but  it  is  left  with  me  to  determine 
whether  it  shall  increase  and  fructify  or  not.  On  the 
Cross  He  said,  *  It  is  finished,'  but  all  through  the  ages 
He  is  working,  and  all  through  the  ages  His  mightiest 
means  of  working  is  through  the  men  by  whom  He 
works.  The  Lord  works  with  them,  and  they  work 
with  the  Lord.  They  are  His  tools;  He  makes  them, 
but  He  cannot  do  His  work  without  them.  And 
notwithstanding  the  Cross,  notwithstanding  the  ade- 
quate powers  for  the  regeneration  of  humanity,  and 
the  salvation  of  individuals,  which  lie  in  that  message 
of  the  Gospel,  the  co-operation  of  the  Church  is  needed 
if  the  world  is  to  be  saved.  Surely  it  is  constituted  in 
order  to  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ,  and  to  carry  on  the  unfinished  development  of 
the  finished  work  which,  done  once  for  all  on  the  Cross, 
is  not  done  until  it  has  been  applied  to  the  world  by 


76  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

Christ  working  through  His  people,  and  by  His  people 
working  with  Christ.  If  there  is  a  flaw  in  the  covering 
that  enwraps  the  wire,  there  will  be  no  message  at  the 
other  end.  If  you  and  I  are  non-conductors,  no  matter 
how  much  power  may  be  flashed  into  us,  that  which  is 
beyond  us  will  want  the  power.  The  medium  between 
Christ  and  the  world  that  He  died  and  lives  to  save, 
the  medium  is  we  Christian  people. 

'Workers  with  the  Truth.'  That  is  parallel  with 
what  Paul  says,  in  the  great  word  which  he  ventures 
upon  when,  having  just  declared  that  neither  he  nor 
ApoUos  are  anything,  he  rises  to  the  thought  which 
balances  that  of  their  nothingness :  '  We  are  labourers 
together  with  God.' 

Is  not  that  a  dignity?  And  what  shall  we  say  of 
men  who  have  so  little  consciousness  of  union  with 
Jesus  Christ  as  that  they  have  next  to  no  sympathy 
with  the  things  that  fill  His  heart?  I  plead  for  no 
narrow  interpretation  of  the  duties  of  the  '  fellow- 
workers  with  the  Truth.'  He  came  to  redress  all  human 
misery,  sin,  and  evil.  He  came  not  only  to  speak  the 
words  that  save  the  soul  with  the  everlasting  salvation 
of  sin  forgiven,  and  friendship  restored  between  God 
and  man,  but  to  carry  light  and  healing  and  peace  and 
hope  into  every  region  where  the  darkness  broods,  to 
break  every  chain  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free.  Social 
improvements,  and  all  the  wider  outlooks  which  Chris- 
tian benevolence  takes  in  these  late  years,  all  come  into 
the  general  category  of  being  the  carrying  out  of 
Christ's  sympathies  and  purpose,  and  being  part  of  the 
work  of  those  who  are  '  fellow- workers '  with  Him  in 
His  toil,  and  who  shall  one  day  hear,  'It  is  finished! 
The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  of  His  Christ.' 


V.8]  FELLOW-WORKERS  WITH  TRUTH  77 

III.  Further,  the  workers  with  Christ  are  to  be 
workers  with  one  another. 

These  travelling  evangelists  had  one  function.  The 
people  in  the  unknown  church  in  Asia  Minor,  staying 
at  home  and  following  their  secular  callings,  had 
another;  and  that  was,  to  help  and  to  further  these 
peripatetic  brethren.  Co-operation  means  diversity  of 
function  and  identity  of  aims  and  ends.  For  us  there 
remains  the  duty  still,  as  incumbent  as  it  was  in  those 
early  days,  of  recognising  our  own  special  task,  of 
cleaving  to  that,  and  yet  of  furthering  and  helping  all 
our  brethren  who,  in  their  diverse  ways,  are  engaged 
in  the  same  great  end.  The  men  that  take  care  of 
the  base  of  operations  of  that  army  that  is  pressing 
down  upon  the  foe  are  as  truly  fighting  the  enemy  as 
the  men  that  are  in  the  front.  It  was  the  old  law  in 
Israel,  based  upon  a  clear  understanding  that  all  who 
co-operated  towards  one  end,  in  whatsoever  divers  ways, 
are  united  together ;  that  'as  his  partis  that  goes  down 
into  the  battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  abides  by  the 
stuff ;  they  shall  part  alike.' 

Brethren,  learn  your  special  work.  Remember  that 
you  have  each  something  to  do  that  nobody  can  do  as 
well  as  you.  Learn  your  special  work,  and  beware  of 
narrowing  your  sympathies  to  your  special  work.  Let 
them  go  out  to  embrace  all,  however  far  apart  upon 
the  wall  and  however  different  may  be  their  tasks,  they 
are  still  co-operant  to  one  end.  *  He  that  planteth  and 
he  that  watereth  are  one.'  Identity  of  purpose,  and 
wide  diversity  of  method,  with  as  wide  charity,  and  as 
wide  sympathy,  ought  to  mark  all  Christian  workers. 

All  the  thoughts  that  I  have  been  trying  to  urge  have 
a  very  direct  bearing  upon  church  as  well  as  upon 
individual  life.    Although  there  is  no  intention,  on  our 


78  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

Apostle's  part,  of  laying  down  anything  like  the  consti- 
tution of  a  Christian  church,  in  the  incidental  words  of 
my  text,  yet  the  principles  involved  in  these  words  do 
lie  very  deep  down  in  the  conception  of  what  a  Chris- 
tian church  ought  to  be.  They  make  very  short  work 
of  all  sacerdotal  assumptions.  A  priest  doing  a  miracle 
there  at  the  altar,  and  the  people  simple  recipients  of, 
and  spectators — that,  in  many  quarters,  is  the  modern 
notion  of  the  relation  between  pastor  and  people. 
John  gives  the  truer  one  when  he  says — *  fellow-helpers 
to  the  Truth.' 

The  words  bear  on  a  mistake  that  is  more  common 
in  the  audience,  I  suppose,  than  sacramentarian  notion 
— namely,  that  a  church  is  a  place  where  people  come 
to  hear  sermons  and  pay  their  pew-rents,  and  there  an 
end.  There  is  a  dead-weight  of  idle  people  clogging 
the  work  of  every  Christian  congregation  in  England. 
Christian  professors !  what  do  you  do  for  the  Truth,  for 
your  Lord,  for  your  brethren  ?  I,  for  my  part,  have  to 
say  with  the  Apostle, '  not  for  that  we  have  dominion 
over  your  faith,  but  are  helpers  of  your  joy;  for  by 
faith  ye  stand.'  I  decline  all  responsibility  for  doing 
more  than  my  own  share  of  the  evangelistic  work  of 
this  church.  The  Chinese  put  up  mud-forts  in  which 
there  is  one  real  cannon  that  can  be  fired,  and  make  a 
noise,  and  all  the  rest  are  dummies ;  painted,  wooden. 
That  is  a  great  deal  too  like  what  a  great  many  Chris- 
tian churches  are — one  piece  to  fire,  and  the  others  for 
show. 

'Fellow-helpers.'  That  defines  our  mutual  relation. 
But  do  not  be  too  sure  that  your  work  is  only  the 
indirect  work  of  sustaining '  them  that  are  such.'  There 
is  some  direct  work  for  you  to  do.  And  you  are  shutting 
your  souls  out  from  a  great  blessing  by  not  doing  it. 


V.8]      THE  CHRISTIAN'S  WITNESSES      79 

Sure  I  am  that  whoever  is  in  union  with  Jesus  Christ 
will  have  his  lips  touched  to  proclaim  His  Name  some- 
how. And  sure  I  am  that  whoever,  smitten  by  love 
and  loyalty  to  his  Master,  by  the  ardour  of  affection 
born  of  the  grasp  of  the  Truth,  and  by  real  love  for  his 
fellow-men  that  need  it,  opens  his  lips  to  make  Christ 
known,  will  find  that  there  is  no  surer  way  of  increasing 
his  own  grasp  of  the  Truth,  and  deepening  his  own  union 
with  Christ,  than  to  seek  to  make  others  share  in  the 
blessings  which  are  his  life.  'Fellow-helpers  to  the 
Truth ' — and  with  the  Truth — I  pray  that  we  may  be  so 
more  and  more  for  the  days  or  years  that  may  yet 
remain  to  us. 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  WITNESSES  TO  CHARACTER 

'  Demetrius  hath  a  good  report  of  all  men,  and  of  the  truth  itself.'— 3  John  12. 

What  a  strange  fate  this  Demetrius  has  had  !  He  has 
narrowly  escaped  oblivion,  yet  he  is  remembered  for 
ever  and  his  name  is  known  over  all  the  world.  But 
beyond  the  name  nothing  is  certain.  Who  he  was, 
where  and  when  he  lived,  what  he  had  done  to  earn 
the  old  Apostle's  commendation  are  unknown.  All  his 
surroundings  are  swallowed  up  in  darkness,  and  there 
shines  out  only  that  one  little  point  of  light  that  he 
'hath  a  good  report' — or,  as  the  Revised  Version  better 
renders  it,  '  he  hath  the  witness  of  all  men,  and  of  the 
truth  itself.'  A  great  many  brilliant  reputations  might 
be  glad  to  exchange  a  fame  that  has  filled  the  world 
for  a  little  epitaph  like  that. 

I  said  we  did  not  know  anything  about  him.  What 
if  he  should  be  the  Demetrius  whose  astute  appeal  to 
profit  and  religion  roused  the  shrine-makers  at  Ephesus 


80  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

and  imperilled  Paul's  life?  Of  course,  that  is  mere 
conjecture,  and  the  identity  of  name  is  not  a  strong 
foundation  to  build  on,  for  it  was  a  very  common  one. 
If  this  disciple,  thus  praised  by  John,  is  our  old 
acquaintance  in  Acts,  what  a  change  had  come  over 
him !  Truly,  to  him,  *  old  things  had  passed  away,  all 
things  were  become  new.'  If  we  remember  John's 
long  connection  with  Ephesus,  the  conjecture  will 
perhaps  seem  reasonable.  At  all  events,  we  do  no 
harm  if,  perhaps  led  by  sentiment,  we  give  as  much 
weight  as  we  can  to  the  supposition  that  here  we  have, 
reappearing  within  the  Church,  the  old  antagonist, 
and  that  '  this  Paul '  had  '  persuaded '  him,  too,  that 
'  they  be  no  gods  which  are  made  with  hands,'  and  so 
had  turned  him  to  Jesus  Christ.  I  wonder  what  became 
of  his  craft,  and  his  silver  shrines,  if  this  is  the  same 
man  as  he  who  mustered  the  Ephesian  silversmiths. 

But  be  that  as  it  may,  I  desire — keeping  in  mind  the 
alteration  of  rendering  that  I  have  suggested — 'hath 
witness  of  all  men,'  and  of  the  truth  itself — to  look  at 
the  sort  of  witnesses  to  character  that  a  Christian  man 
should  be  able  to  call. 

I.  The  first  witness  is  Common  Opinion. 

There  is  something  wrong  unless  a  Christian  can  put 
popular  opinion  into  the  witness-box  in  his  favour. 
Of  course  there  is  a  sense  in  which  there  is  nothing 
more  contemptible  than  seeking  for  that,  and  in  which 
no  heavier  woe  can  come  upon  us,  and  no  worse  thiug 
can  be  said  about  us,  than  that  all  men  speak  well  of 
us.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  whether  men  speak  well 
of  us  or  not,  there  should  be  a  distinctive  characteristic 
plainly  visible  in  us  Christians  which  shall  make  all 
sorts  of  observers  say  to  themselves,  'Weill  that  is  a 
good  man  anyhow.    I  may  not  like  him ;  I  may  not 


V.12]    THE  CHRISTIAN'S  WITNESSES      81 

want  to  resemble  him ;  but  I  cannot  help  seeing  what 
sort  of  a  man  he  is,  and  that  there  is  no  mistake  about 
his  genuine  goodness.'  That  is  a  testimony  which 
Christians  ought  to  be  more  ambitious  of  possessing 
than  many  of  them  are,  and  to  lay  themselves  out 
more  consciously  to  get,  than  most  of  them  do.  For 
bad  men  generally  know  a  good  one  when  they  see 
him,  and  a  great  many  of  them 

*  Compound  for  sins  they  are  inclined  to 
By  praising  virtues  they  Ve  no  naind  to,' 

and  substitute  admiration  of  uncongenial  goodness  for 
imitation  of  it.  It  is  nothing  uncommon  to  find  the 
drunkard  praising  the  temperate  man,  and  evil-livers 
of  all  sorts  recognising  the  beauty  of  their  own 
opposites.  The  w^orst  man  in  the  world  has  an  ideal 
of  goodness  in  his  conscience  and  mind,  far  purer  and 
loftier  than  the  best  man  has  realised. 

And,  again,  it  is  a  very  righteous  and  good  thing 
that  people  who  are  not  Christians  should  have  such 
extremely  lofty  and  strict  standards  for  the  conduct 
of  people  that  are.  We  sometimes  smile  when  we  see 
in  thenewspapers,  for  instance,  sensational  paragraphs 
about  the  crime  of  some  minister,  or  clergyman,  or 
some  representative  religious  man.  No  doubt  a  dash 
of  malice  is  present  in  these ;  but  they  are  an  uncon- 
scious testimony  to  the  high  ideal  of  character  which 
attaches  to  the  profession  of  Christianity.  No  similar 
paragraphs  appear  about  the  immoralities  or  crimes  of 
non-religious  men.  They  are  not  expected  to  be  saints. 
But  we  are,  and  it  is  right  that  we  should  be  thus  ex- 
pected. The  world  does  not  demand  of  us  more  than  it  is 
entitled  to  do,  or  that  our  Lord  has  demanded.  There 
is  nothing  more  wholesome  than  that  Christian  people 

F 


82  III.  JOHN  [CHI. 

should  feel  that  there  are  lynx  eyes  watching  them, 
and  hundreds  who  will  have  a  malicious  joy  if  they 
defile  their  garments,  and  bring  discredit  on  their 
profession. 

I  have  not  the  smallest  objection  to  that;  and  I 
only  wish  that  some  of  us  who  talk  a  great  deal  about 
the  depth  of  our  spiritual  life  could  hear  what  is 
thought  of  us  by  our  next-door  neighbours,  and  our 
servants,  and  the  tradesmen  that  we  deal  with,  and  all 
those  other  folk  that  have  no  sympathy  with  our 
religion,  and  are,  therefore,  rigid  judges  of  our 
conduct. 

Then  there  is  another  consideration  which  I  suggest 
— that  a  great  many  good  people  think  that  it  is  their 
Christianity  that  makes  folk  speak  ill  of  them,  when 
it  is  their  inconsistencies  and  not  their  Christianity 
that  provoke  the  sarcasm.  If  you  wrap  up  the 
treasure  of  your  Christianity  in  a  rough  envelope  of 
angularity,  self-righteousness,  sourness,  censure,  and 
criticism,  you  need  not  wonder  that  people  do  not 
think  much  of  your  Christianity.  It  is  not  because 
Christian  professors  are  good,  but  because  they  are 
not  better,  that  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  the 
uncharitable  things  that  are  said  about  them  are  said, 
and  truly  said. 

So,  dear  friends,  let  us — not  in  any  cowardly  spirit 
of  trying  to  disarm  censure,  nor  because  we  have  an 
itch  to  be  caressed,  like  a  parrot  to  have  its  head 
scratched,  nor  because  we  are  pleased  that  men  shall 
think  well  of  us,  but  because  the  judgment  of  the 
world  is,  in  some  degree,  a  more  wholesome  tribunal 
than  the  judgment  of  our  own  consciences,  and  is, 
in  some  sense,  an  anticipation,  though  with  many 
mistakes,  of  the  judgment  of  God — let  us  try  to  have  a 


Y.12]    THE  CHRISTIAN'S  WITNESSES      88 

good  report  of  'them  that  are  without/  and  to  be 
•  living  epistles,  known  and  read  of  all  men,'  who  will 
recognise  the  handwriting,  and  say,  *  That  is  Christ's.' 

Remember  Daniel  in  that  court  where  luxury  and 
vice  and  sensuality,  and  base  intrigues  of  all  sorts 
rioted,  and  how  they  said  of  him,  *  We  shall  find  no 
occasion  against  him  except  it  be  concerning  the  law 
of  his  God.'  And  let  us  try  to  earn  the  same  kind  of 
reputation  ;  and  be  sure  of  this  that,  unless  the  world 
endorses  our  profession  of  Christianity,  which  it  may 
do  by  disliking  us — that  is  as  it  may  be — there  is  grave 
reason  to  doubt  whether  the  profession  is  a  reality 
or  not. 

II.  Then  there  is  another  witness  here  mentioned — 
'  the  truth  itself.' 

The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  witnesses  for  the  man 
who  witnesses  for,  and  lives  by  it.  A  law  broken 
testifies  against  the  breaker;  a  law  kept  testifies  for 
him.  And  so,  if  there  be  an  approximation  in  the 
drift  of  our  lives  to  the  great  ideal  set  forth  in  the 
law  of  God,  that  law  will  bear  witness  for  us.  But 
there  must  be  in  us  the  things  that  Christianity  plainly 
requires  before  *  the  truth '  can  be  put  into  the  witness- 
box  for  us.    There  must  be  manifest  self-surrender. 

Let  us  go  back  to  our  supposition,  which,  of  course, 
I  freely  admit  is  the  only  conjecture.  If  this  is  the 
Demetrius  of  the  Acts,  and  he  became  a  Christian,  the 
first  thing  that  *  the  truth '  required  of  him  would  be 
to  shut  up  shop,  to  give  up  the  lucrative  occupation  by 
which  he  had  his  wealth,  and  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
men  that  were  warring  against  idols.  We,  in  our 
degree,  will  have,  in  some  form  or  other,  the  same  self- 
surrender  to  exercise. 

I  have  a  letter  which  tells  me  the  story  of  a  man, 


84  III.  JOHN  [CH.I- 

who  for  years  has  been  trying  to  serve  God,  in  the 
employ  of  some  establishment  where  they  sell  wines 
and  spirits,  but  now  his  conscience  has  smitten  him, 
and  he  has  had  to  give  it  up,  and  writes  to  ask  me  if  I 
can  find  him  a  situation.  Well !  he  is  borne  witness 
to  by  the  truth  itself,  which  he  has  loyally  obeyed. 
We  all,  as  Christians,  have  to  do  the  like,  and  not  only 
in  the  great  acts  of  our  lives  to  rid  ourselves  of  every- 
thing that  is  contrary  to  the  principles  and  command- 
ments of  the  Word,  but  in  the  small  things  to  be  ever 
seeking  to  come  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  ideal  which 
He  requires. 

When  looking  into  the  perfect  law  of  liberty  we  see 
in  its  precepts  our  own  characters  reflected,  if  I  may  so 
say ;  because  we  keep  these  we  may  be  sure  that  we 
are  right.  If  we  do  not,  we  may  be  sure  that  we  are 
wrong.  The  truth  will  bear  witness  against  lives  that 
are  ordered  in  defiance  of  it,  and  for  those  which  are 
conformed  to  it.  It  is  possible  that  even  the  lofty  and 
perfect  examples  of  conduct  and  character  which  are  in 
the  history  of  the  Master,  and  the  principles  that  are 
drawn  from  Him,  may  testify  of  us ;  and  if  so,  what 
quiet  blessedness  will  be  ours ! 

III.  But  there  is  a  last  thought  here.  Christ  Himself 
will  be  a  witness. 

I  do  not  know  that  in  these  profound  and  mystical 
letters  of  the  Apostle  John,  that  great  designation 
*  the  truth  '  is  ever  employed  to  mean  only  the  body  of 
teaching  contained  in  what  we  call  the  Gospel.  I 
think  that  there  is  always  trembling  in  the  expression, 
and  sometimes  predominating  in  it,  in  these  letters, 
the  personal  application  of  which  our  Lord,  as  reported 
by  the  same  Apostle  when  he  was  playing  the  part  of 
Evangelist,  gives  us  the  warrant,  when  He  says,  '  I  am 


V.12J     THE  CHRISTIAN'S  WITNESSES      85 

the  Truth.'  And  if  that  personal  meaning  is,  as  I 
think  it  is,  shimmering  through  these  words,  then  we 
may  venture  to  deal  with  it  separately  in  conclusion, 
and  to  say  that  the  third  witness  is  Jesus  Christ 
Himself. 

'  With  me,'  said  Paul,  *  it  is  a  very  small  matter  to  be 
judged  of  you,  or  of  man's  judgment';  and  that 
wholesome  disregard  of  opinion  is  part  of  the  attitude 
which  we  should  bear  towards  popular  or  any  human 
estimate — but '  he  that  judgeth  me  is  the  Lord.' 

Now,  notice  Paul's  tenses.  He  does  not  say,  '  He  that 
is  going  to  judge  me,'  away  out  yonder  in  the  indefinite 
future,  at  some  great  Day  of  Judgment  after  death,  but 
he  says,  *  He  that  judgeth  me ' ;  and  he  means  us  to  feel 
that,  step  by  step,  all  through  our  lives,  and  in  re- 
ference to  each  individual  action  at  the  time  of  its 
commission,  there  is  an  act  of  Christ's  judgment,  in 
infallible  determination  by  Him  of  the  moral  good  or 
evil  of  our  deed.  So,  moment  by  moment,  we  are  at 
that  tribunal,  and  act  by  act,  we  please  or  we  displease 
Him ;  and  of  each  feeling  and  thought,  word,  and  deed, 
He  says,  '  Well,'  or  *  111,  is  it  done.' 

We  may  have  Him  for  our  Witness  as  well  as  for  our 
Judge.  How  does  He  witness  ?  To-day,  and  all  through 
our  earthly  days,  He  will  witness  by  His  voice  in  the 
inner  man,  enlightened  and  made  sensitive  to  evil  by 
His  own  gracious  presence.  I  believe  that  conscience 
is  always  the  irradiation  of  the  *  Light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world ' ;  but  I  believe 
that  the  conscience  of  the  man  who  is  born  again  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  in  a  more  special  manner  the 
voice  of  Christ  Himself  speaking  within  him.  And 
when  there  rises  in  the  heart  that  quiet  glow  which 
follows  His  approval,  there  is  a  Witness  that  no  voices 


86  III.  JOHN  [CH.I. 

around,  censuring  or  praising,  have  the  smallest  power 
to  affect.  Never  mind  what  the  world  says  if  the 
voice  within,  which  is  the  voice  of  Jesus  Christ,  testifies 
to  integrity  and  to  the  desire  to  serve  Him. 

And  covet  this,  dear  friends,  as  by  far  the  best  and 
the  happiest  thing  that  we  can  possess  in  this  world, 
when  we  hear  Him,  in  the  recesses  of  our  hearts,  saying 
to  us, '  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,'  then  our 
thoughts  are  carried  forward  still  further;  and  we 
may  venture,  with  all  our  imperfections,  to  look 
onward  to  the  day  when  again  the  Judge  will  be  the 
Witness  for  us,  even  to  the  surprise  of  those  whose  acts 
He  then  attests.  He  Himself  has  taught  us  so,  when  He 
pictures  the  wondering  servant  saying,  'Lord,  when 
did  I  do  all  these  things,  which  Thou  hast  discovered  in 
me  ? '  And  He  has  assured  us  that  *  never  will  He  forget 
any  of  our  works,'  and  that  at  the  last  solemn  hour, 
when  we  must  be  manifested  before  the  Judgment-seat 
of  Christ,  He  Himself  will  confess  our  deeds  before  the 
Father  and  before  His  holy  angels.  It  is  well  to  have 
the  witness  of  man ;  it  is  heaven  to  have  the  witness  of 
the  Truth  Himself. 


JUDE 

THE  COMMON  SALVATION 

'  The  common  salvation.'— Jude  3. 
'  The  common  faith.'— Titus  i.  i. 

JuDE  was  probably  one  of  Christ's  brothers,  and  a  man 
of  position  and  influence  in  the  Church.  He  is  writing 
to  the  whole  early  Christian  community,  numbering 
men  widely  separated  from  each  other  by  nationality, 
race,  culture,  and  general  outlook  on  life;  and  he 
beautifully  and  humbly  unites  himself  with  them  all 
as  recipients  of  a  '  common  salvation.'  Paul  is  writing 
to  Titus,  the  veteran  leader  to  a  raw  recruit.  Wide 
differences  of  mental  power,  of  maturity  of  religious 
experience,  separated  the  two ;  and  yet  Paul  beauti- 
fully and  humbly  associates  himself  with  his  pupil,  as 
exercising  a  '  common  faith.' 

Probably  neither  of  the  writers  meant  more  than  to 
bring  himself  nearer  to  the  persons  whom  they  were 
respectively  addressing ;  but  their  language  goes  a 
great  deal  further  than  the  immediate  application  of 
it.  The  'salvation'  was  'common'  to  Jude  and  his 
readers,  as  *  the  faith '  was  to  Paul  and  Titus,  because 
the  salvation  and  the  faith  are  one,  all  the  world  over. 
It  is  for  the  sake  of  insisting  upon  this  community, 
which  is  universal,  that  I  have  ventured  to  isolate 
these  two  fragments  from  their  proper  connection,  and 
to  bring  them  together.  But  you  will  notice  that  they 
take  up  the  same  thought  at  two  different  stages,  as  it 

87 


88  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

were.  The  one  declares  that  there  is  but  one  remedy 
and  healing  for  all  the  world's  woes ;  the  other  declares 
that  there  is  but  one  way  by  which  that  remedy  can 
be  applied.  All  who  possess  'the  common  salvation' 
are  so  blessed  because  they  exercise  'the  common  faith.' 

I.  Note  the  underlying  conception  of  a  universal 
deepest  need. 

That  Christian  word  '  salvation '  has  come  to  be 
threadbare  and  commonplace,  and  slips  over  people's 
minds  without  leaving  any  dint.  We  all  think  we 
understand  it.  Some  of  us  have  only  the  faintest  and 
vaguest  conception  of  what  it  means,  and  have  never 
realised  the  solemn  view  of  human  nature  and  its 
necessities  which  lies  beneath  it.  And  I  want  to  press 
that  upon  you  now.  The  word  '  to  save  '  means  either 
of  two  things — to  heal  from  a  sickness,  or  to  deliver 
from  a  danger.  These  two  ideas  of  sickness  to  be 
healed  and  of  dangers  to  be  secured  from  enter  into 
the  Christian  use  of  the  word.  Underlying  it  is  the 
implication  that  the  condition  of  humanity  is  univer- 
sally that  of  needing  healing  of  a  sore  sickness,  and 
of  needing  deliverance  from  an  overhanging  and 
tremendous  danger.  Sin  is  the  sickness,  and  the 
issues  of  sin  are  the  danger.  And, sin  is  making  myself 
my  centre  and  my  law,  and  so  distorting  and  flinging 
out  of  gear,  as  it  were,  my  relations  to  God. 

Surely  it  does  not  want  many  words  to  show  that 
that  must  be  the  most  important  thing  about  a  man. 
Deep  down  below  all  superficialities  there  lies  this 
fundamental  fact,  that  he  has  gone  wrong  with  regard 
to  God;  and  no  amount  of  sophistication  about 
heredity  and  environment  and  the  like  can  ever  wipe 
out  the  blackness  of  the  fact  that  men  willingly  do 
break  through  the  law,  which  commands  us  all  to  yield 


V.3]         THE  COMMON  SALVATION  89 

ourselves  to  God,  and  not  to  set  ourselves  up  as  our 
own  masters,  and  our  own  aims  and  ends,  indepen- 
dently of  Him.  I  say  that  is  the  deepest  wound  of 
humanity. 

In  these  days  of  social  unrest  there  are  plenty  of 
voices  round  us  that  proclaim  other  needs  as  being 
clamant,  but,  oh,  they  are  all  shallow  and  on  the  sur- 
face as  compared  with  the  deepest  need  of  all :  and  the 
men  that  come  round  the  sick-bed  of  humanity  and  say, 
•Ah,  the  patient  is  suffering  from  a  lack  of  education,' 
or  •  the  patient  is  suffering  from  unfavourable  en- 
vironment,' have  diagnosed  the  disease  superficially. 
There  is  something  deeper  the  matter  than  that,  and 
unless  the  physician  has  probed  further  into  the  wound 
than  these  surface  appearances,  I  am  afraid  his  remedy 
will  go  as  short  a  way  down  as  his  conception  of  the 
evil  goes. 

Oh,  brethren,  there  is  something  else  the  matter 
with  us  than  ignorance  or  unfavourable  conditions. 
*The  whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint.' 
The  tap-root  of  all  human  miseries  lies  in  the  solemn 
fact  of  human  transgression.  That  is  a  universal  fact. 
Wide  differences  part  us,  but  there  is  one  thing  that 
we  have  all  in  common :  a  conscience  and  a  will  that 
lifts  itself  against  disliked  good.  Beneath  all  surface 
differences  of  garb  there  lies  the  same  fact,  the  common 
sickness  of  sin.  The  king's  robe,  the  pauper's  uniform, 
the  student's  gown,  the  mill-hand's  fustian,  the  naked 
savage's  brown  skin,  each  cover  a  heart  that  is  evil,  and 
because  it  is  evil,  needs  salvation  from  sickness  and 
deliverance  from  danger. 

For  do  not  forget  that  if  it  is  true  that  men  have 
driven  their  rebellious  chariots  through  God's  law, 
they  cabndt    do  that    without   bringing  down  God's 


90  JUDE  [CH.I. 

hand  upon  them,  and  they  ought  not  to  be  able  to  do 
it;  and  He  would  not  be  a  loving  God  if  it  were  not 
so.  There  are  dangers;  dangers  from  the  necessary 
inevitable  consequences,  here  and  yonder,  of  rebellion 
against  Him. 

Now,  do  not  let  us  lose  ourselves  in  generalities. 
That  is  the  way  in  which  many  of  us  have  all  our 
lives  long  blunted  the  point  of  the  message  of  the 
Gospel  to  our  hearts.  That  is  what  we  do  with  all 
sorts  of  important  moral  truths.  For  instance,  I  sup- 
pose there  never  was  a  time  in  your  lives  when  you 
did  not  believe  that  all  men  must  die.  But  I  suppose 
most  of  us  can  remember  some  time  when  there  came 
upon  us,  with  a  shock  which  made  some  of  us  cower 
before  it  as  an  unwelcome  thing,  the  thought,  •  And  / 
must.' 

The  common  sickness?  Yes!  'Thou  art  the  man.' 
Oh,  brother,  whatever  you  may  have  or  whatever  you 
may  want,  be  sure  of  this:  that  your  deepest  needs 
will  not  be  met,  your  sorest  sickness  will  not  be  healed, 
your  most  tremendous  peril  not  secured  against,  until 
the  fact  of  your  individual  sinfulness  and  the  conse- 
quences of  that  fact  are  somehow  or  other  dealt  with, 
stanched,  and  swept  away.  So  much,  then,  for  the 
first  point. 

II.  Now  a  word  as  to  the  common  remedy.  One 
of  our  texts  gives  us  that — '  the  common  salvation.' 

You  all  know  what  I  am  going  to  say,  and  so,  per- 
haps, you  suppose  that  it  is  not  worth  while  for  me  to 
say  it.  I  dare  say  some  of  you  think  that  it  was  not 
worth  while  coming  here  to  hear  the  whole,  thread- 
bare, commonplace  story.  "Well !  is  it  worth  while 
for  me  to  speak  once  more  to  men  that  have  so  often 
heard  and  so  often  neglected?    Let  me  try.    Oh,  that  I 


V.3]         THE  COMMON  SALVATION  91 

could  get  you  one  by  one,  and  drive  home  to  each 
single  soul  that  is  listening  to  me,  or  perhaps,  that  is 
not  listening,  the  message  that  I  have  to  bring ! 

'The  common  salvation.'  There  is  one  remedy  for 
the  sickness.  There  is  one  safety  against  the  danger. 
There  is  only  one,  because  it  is  the  remedy  for  all 
men,  and  it  is  the  remedy  for  all  men  because  it  is  the 
remedy  for  each.  Jesus  Christ  deals,  as  no  one  else 
has  ever  pretended  to  deal,  with  this  outstanding  fact 
of  my  transgression  and  yours. 

He,  by  His  death,  as  I  believe,  has  saved  the  world 
from  the  danger,  because  He  has  set  right  the  world's 
relations  to  God.  I  am  not  going,  at  this  stage  of  my 
sermon,  to  enter  upon  anything  in  the  nature  of  discus- 
sion. My  purpose  is  an  entirely  different  one.  I  want 
to  press  upon  you,  dear  brethren,  this  plain  fact,  that 
since  there  is  a  God,  and  since  you  and  I  have  sinned, 
and  since  things  are  as  they  are,  and  the  consequences 
will  be  as  they  will  be,  both  in  this  world  and  in  the 
next,  we  all  stand  in  danger  of  death — death  eternal, 
which  comes  from,  and,  in  one  sense,  consists  of, 
separation  in  heart  and  mind  from  God. 

You  believe  in  a  judgment  day,  do  you  not  ? 
Whether  you  do  or  not,  you  have  only  to  open  your 
eyes,  you  have  only  to  turn  them  inwards,  to  see  that 
even  here  and  now,  every  sin  and  transgression  and 
disobedience  does  receive  its  just  recompense  of  reward. 
You  cannot  do  a  wrong  thing  without  hurting  your- 
self, without  desolating  some  part  of  your  nature, 
without  enfeebling  your  power  of  resistance  to  evil 
and  aspiration  after  good,  without  lowering  yourself 
in  the  scale  of  being,  and  making  yourself  ashamed  to 
stand  before  the  bar  of  your  own  conscience.  You 
cannot  do  some  wrong  things,  that  some  of  you  are 


92  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

fond  of  doing,  without  dragging  after  them  conse- 
quences, in  this  world,  of  anything  but  an  agreeable 
kind.  Sins  of  the  flesh  avenge  themselves  in  kind,  as 
some  of  you  young  men  know,  and  will  know  better 
in  the  days  that  are  before  you.  Transgressions  which 
are  plain  and  clear  in  the  eyes  of  even  the  world's 
judgment  draw  after  them  damaged  reputations,  en- 
feebled health,  closed  doors  of  opportunity,  and  a  whole 
host  of  such  things.  And  all  these  are  but  a  kind  of 
premonitions  and  overshado wings  of  that  solemn 
judgment  that  lies  beyond.  For  all  men  will  have  to 
eat  the  fruit  of  their  doings  and  drink  that  which  they 
have  prepared.  But  on  the  Cross,  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  bore  the  weight  of  the  world's  sin,  yours 
and  mine  and  every  man's.  There  is  one  security 
against  the  danger ;  and  it  is  that  He,  fronting  the 
incidence  of  the  Divine  law,  says,  as  He  said  to  His 
would-be  captors  in  the  garden,  '  If  ye  seek  Me,  let 
these  go  their  way.'  And  they  go  their  way  by  the 
power  of  His  atoning  death. 

Further,  Jesus  Christ  imparts  a  life  that  cures  the 
sickness  of  sin. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this  Whitsuntide  that  all  the 
Christian  world  is  professing  to  keep  to-day?  Is  it 
to  commemorate  a  thing  that  happened  nineteen  cen- 
turies ago,  when  a  handful  of  Jews  for  a  few  minutes 
had  the  power  of  talking  in  other  languages,  and  a 
miraculous  light  flamed  over  their  heads  and  then  dis- 
appeared ?  Was  that  all  ?  Have  you  and  I  any  share 
in  it?  Yes.  For  if  Pentecost  means  anything  it 
means  this,  that,  all  down  through  the  ages,  Jesus 
Christ  is  imparting  to  men  that  cleave  to  Him  the  real 
gift  of  a  new  life,  free  from  all  the  sickness  of  the  old, 
and  healthy  with  the  wholesomeness  of  His  own  perfect 


V.3]         THE  COMMON  SALVATION  93 

sinlessness,  so  that,  however  inveterate  and  engrained 
a  man's  habits  of  wrong-doing  may  have  been,  if  he 
will  turn  to  that  Saviour,  and  let  Him  work  upon  him, 
he  will  be  delivered  from  his  evil.  The  leprosy  of  his 
flesh,  though  the  lumps  of  diseased  matter  may  be 
dropping  from  the  bones,  and  the  stench  of  corruption 
may  drive  away  human  love  and  sympathy,  can  be 
cleansed,  and  his  flesh  become  like  the  flesh  of  a  little 
child,  if  only  he  will  trust  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  sickness 
can  be  cured.  Christ  deals  with  men  in  the  depth  of 
their  being.  He  will  give  you,  if  you  will,  a  new  life 
and  new  tastes,  directions,  inclinations,  impulses,  per- 
ceptions, hopes,  and  capacities,  and  the  evil  will  pass 
away,  and  you  will  be  whole. 

Ah,  brethren,  that  is  the  only  cure.  I  was  talking  a 
minute  or  two  ago  about  imperfect  diagnoses;  and 
there  are  superficial  remedies  too.  Men  round  us  are 
trying,  in  various  ways,  to  stanch  the  world's  wounds, 
to  heal  the  world's  sicknesses.  God  forbid  that  I 
should  say  a  word  to  discourage  any  such !  I  would 
rather  wish  them  ten  times  more  numerous  than  they 
are;  but  at  the  same  time  I  believe  that,  unless  you 
deal  with  the  fountain  at  its  head,  you  will  never 
cleanse  the  stream,  and  that  you  must  have  the  radical 
change,  which  comes  by  the  gift  of  a  new  life  in 
Christ,  before  men  can  be  delivered  from  the  sickness 
of  their  sins.  And  so  all  these  panaceas,  whilst  they 
may  do  certain  surface  good,  are,  if  I  may  quote  a 
well-known  phrase,  like  *  pills  against  an  earthquake,' 
or  like  giving  a  lotion  to  cure  pimples,  when  the  whole 
head  is  sick  and  the  whole  heart  faint.  You  will  never 
cure  the  ills  of  humanity  until  you  have  delivered  men 
from  the  dominion  of  their  sin. 

Jesus  Christ  heals  society  by  healing  the  individual. 


94  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

There  is  no  other  way  of  doing  it.  If  the  units  are 
corrupt  the  community  cannot  be  pure.  And  the  only 
way  to  make  the  units  pure  is  that  they  shall  have 
Christ  on  the  Cross  for  their  redemption,  and  Christ  in 
the  heart  for  their  cleansing.  And  then  all  the  things 
that  men  try  to  produce  in  the  shape  of  social  good 
and  the  like,  apart  from  Him,  will  come  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  new  state  of  things  that  arises  when  the 
individuals  are  renewed.  Apart  from  Him  all  human 
attempts  to  deal  with  social  evils  are  inadequate. 
There  is  a  terrible  disillusionising  and  disappointment 
awaiting  many  eager  enthusiasts  to-day,  who  think 
that  by  certain  external  arrangements,  or  by  certain 
educational  and  cultivated  processes,  they  can  mend 
the  world's  miseries.  You  educate  a  nation.  Well 
and  good,  and  one  result  of  it  is  that  your  bookshops 
get  choked  with  trash,  and  that  vice  has  a  new  avenue 
of  approach  to  men's  hearts.  You  improve  the  eco- 
nomic condition  of  the  people.  Well  and  good,  and 
one  result  of  it  is  that  a  bigger  percentage  than  ever  of 
their  funds  finds  its  way  into  the  drink-shop.  You 
give  a  nation  political  power.  Well  and  good,  and  one 
result  of  it  is  that  the  least  worthy  and  the  least  wise 
have  to  be  flattered  and  coaxed,  because  they  are  the 
rulers.  Every  good  thing,  divorced  from  Christ, 
becomes  an  ally  of  evil,  and  the  only  way  by  which  the 
dreams  and  desires  of  men  can  be  fulfilled  is  by  the 
salvation  which  is  in  Him  entering  the  individual 
hearts  and  thus  moulding  society. 

III.  Now,  lastly,  the  common  means  of  possessing 
the  common  healing. 

My  second  text  tells  us  what  that  is — *  the  common 
faith.'  That  is  another  of  the  words  which  is  so 
familiar  that  it  is  unintelligible,  which  has  been  dinned 


V.3]         THE  COMMON  SALVATION  95 

into  your  ears  ever  since  you  were  little  children,  and 
in  the  case  of  many  of  you  excites  no  definite  idea,  and 
is  supposed  to  be  an  obscure  kind  of  thing  that  belongs 
to  theologians  and  preachers,  but  has  little  to  do  with 
your  daily  lives.  There  is  only  one  way  by  which  this 
healing  and  safety  that  I  have  been  speaking  about 
can  possibly  find  its  way  into  a  man's  heart.  You  have 
all  been  trained  from  childhood  to  believe  that  men . 
are  saved  by  faith,  and  a  great  many  of  you,  I  dare 
say,  think  that  men  might  have  been  saved  by  some 
other  way,  if  God  had  chosen  to  appoint  it  so.  But 
that  is  a  clear  mistake.  If  it  is  true  that  salvation  is 
a  gift  from  God,  then  it  is  quite  plain  that  the  only 
thing  that  we  require  is  an  outstretched  hand.  If  it  is 
true  that  Jesus  Christ's  death  on  the  Cross  has  brought 
salvation  to  all  the  world,  then  it  is  quite  plain  that, 
His  work  being  finished,  we  have  no  need  to  come  in 
pottering  with  any  works  of  ours,  and  that  the  only 
thing  we  have  to  do  is  to  accept  it.  If  it  is  true  that  Jesus 
Christ  will  enter  men's  hearts,  and  there  give  a  new 
spirit  and  a  new  life,  which  will  save  them  from  their 
sins  and  make  them  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death, 
then  it  is  plain  that  the  one  thing  that  we  have  to  do 
is  to  open  our  hearts  and  say  '  Come  in.  Thou  King  of 
Glory,  come  in  ! '  Because  salvation  is  a  gift ;  because 
it  is  the  result  of  a  finished  work ;  because  it  is  imparted 
to  men  by  the  impartation  of  Christ's  own  life  to  them  : 
for  all  these  reasons  it  is  plain  that  the  only  way  by 
which  God  can  save  a  man  is  by  that  man's  putting  his 
trust  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  no  arbitrary  appointment. 
The  only  possible  way  of  possessing  *  the  common  sal- 
vation '  is  by  the  exercise  of  '  the  common  faith.' 

So  we  are  all  put  upon   one  level,  no   matter  how 
different  we  may  be  in  attainments,  in  mental  capacity 


96  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

— geniuses  and  blockheads,  scholars  and  ignoramuses, 
millionaires  and  paupers,  students  and  savages,  we  are 
all  on  the  one  level.  There  is  no  carriage  road  into 
heaven.  We  have  all  to  go  in  at  the  strait  gate,  and 
there  is  no  special  entry  for  people  that  come  with 
their  own  horses;  and  so  some  people  do  not  like  to 
have  to  descend  to  that  level,  and  to  go  with  the  ruck 
and  the  undistinguished  crowd,  and  to  be  saved  just  in 
the  same  fashion  as  Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry,  and  they 
turn  away. 

Plenty  of  people  believe  in  a  *  common  salvation,' 
meaning  thereby  a  vague,  indiscriminate  gift  that  is 
flung  broadcast  over  the  mass.  Plenty  of  people 
believe  in  a  '  common  faith.'  We  hear,  for  instance, 
about  a  *  national  Christianity,'  and  a  '  national  re- 
cognition of  religion,'  and  '  Christian  nations,'  and  the 
like.  There  are  no  Christian  nations  except  nations 
of  which  the  individuals  are  Christians,  and  there  is  no 
'  common  faith '  except  the  faith  exercised  in  common 
by  all  the  units  that  make  up  a  community. 

So  do  not  suppose  that  anything  short  of  your  own 
personal  act  brings  you  into  possession  of  '  the  common 
salvation.'  The  table  is  spread,  but  you  must  take  the 
bread  into  your  own  hands,  and  you  must  masticate  it 
with  your  own  teeth,  and  you  must  assimilate  it  in 
your  own  body,  or  it  is  no  bread  for  you.  The  salva- 
tion is  a  *  common,'  like  one  of  the  great  prairies,  but 
each  separate  settler  has  to  peg  off  his  own  claim,  and 
fence  it  in,  and  take  possession  of  it,  or  he  has  no  share 
in  the  broad  land.  So  remember  that  'the  common 
salvation '  must  be  made  the  individual  salvation  by  the 
individual  exercise  of '  the  common  faith.'  Cry,  'Lord!  / 
believe ! '  and  then  you  will  have  the  right  to  say,  '  The 
Lord  is  my  strength  ;  He  also  is  become  my  salvation.' 


KEEPING  OURSELVES  IN  THE  LOVE 
OF  GOD 

'  But  ye, beloved,  building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy  faith,  praying  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  21.  Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  looking  for  the  mercy  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life.'— Jude  20, 21. 

JuDE  has  been,  in  all  the  former  part  of  the  letter, 
pouring  out  a  fiery  torrent  of  vehement  indignation 
and  denunciation  against  'certain  men'  who  had 
'  crept '  into  the  Church,  and  were  spreading  gross  im- 
morality there.  He  does  not  speak  of  them  so  much 
as  heretics  in  belief,  but  rather  as  evil-doers  in  practice ; 
and  after  the  thunderings  and  lightning,  he  turns 
from  them  with  a  kind  of  sigh  of  relief  in  this  emphatic, 
*But,  ye!  beloved.'  The  storm  ends  in  gentle  rain; 
and  he  tells  the  brethren  who  are  yet  faithful  how  they 
are  to  comport  themselves  in  the  presence  of  pre- 
valent corruption,  and  where  is  their  security  and 
their  peace. 

You  will  observe  that  in  my  text  there  is  embedded, 
in  the  middle  of  it,  a  direct  precept :  '  Keep  yourselves 
in  the  love  of  God ' ;  and  that  that  is  encircled  by  three 
clauses,  like  each  other  in  structure,  and  unlike  it — 
'  building,'  •  praying,'  '  looking.'  The  great  diamond  is 
surrounded  by  a  ring  of  lesser  jewels.  Why  did  Jude 
put  two  of  these  similar  clauses  in  front  of  his  direct 
precept,  and  one  of  them  behind  it  ?  I  think  because 
the  two  that  precede  indicate  the  ways  by  which  the 
precept  can  be  kept,  and  the  one  that  follows  indicates 
the  accompaniment  or  issue  of  obedience  to  the  pre- 
cept. If  that  be  the  reason  for  the  structure  of  my 
text,  it  suggests  also  to  us  the  course  which  we  had  best 
pursue  in  the  exposition  of  it. 

G 


98  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

I.  So  we  have,  to  begin  with,  the  great  direct  precept 
for  the  Christian  life. 

'Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God.'  Now  I  need 
not  spend  a  moment  in  showing  that '  the  love  of  God ' 
here  means,  not  ours  to  Him,  but  His  to  us.  It  is  that 
in  which,  as  in  some  charmed  circle,  we  are  to  keep 
ourselves.  Now  that  injunction  at  once  raises  the 
question  of  the  possibility  of  Christian  men  being  out 
of  the  love  of  God,  straying  away  from  their  home, 
and  getting  out  into  the  open.  Of  course  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  His  '  tender  mercies  are  over  all  His 
works.'  Just  as  the  sky  embraces  all  the  stars  and  the 
earth  within  its  blue  round,  so  that  love  of  God  encom- 
passes every  creature;  and  no  man  can  stray  so  far 
away  as  that,  in  one  profound  sense,  he  gets  beyond  its 
pale.  For  no  man  can  ever  make  God  cease  to  love 
him.  But  whilst  that  is  quite  true,  on  the  other  side 
it  is  equally  true  that  contrariety  of  will  and  continu- 
ance in  evil  deeds  do  so  alter  a  man's  relation  to  the 
love  of  God  as  that  he  is  absolutely  incapable  of  re- 
ceiving its  sweetest  and  most  select  manifestations, 
and  can  only  be  hurt  by  the  incidence  of  its  beams. 
The  sun  gives  life  to  many  creatures,  but  it  slays  some. 
There  are  crawling  things  that  live  beneath  a  stone, 
and  when  you  turn  it  up  and  let  the  arrows  of  the 
sunbeams  smite  down  upon  them,  they  squirm  and 
die.  It  is  possible  for  a  man  so  to  set  himself  in  an- 
tagonism to  that  great  Light  as  that  the  Light  shall 
hurt  and  not  bless  and  soothe. 

It  is  also  possible  for  a  Christian  man  to  step  out  of 
the  charmed  circle,  in  the  sense  that  he  becomes  all 
unconscious  of  that  Light.  Then  to  him  it  comes  to 
the  same  thing  that  the  love  shall  be  non-existent,  and 
that  it  shall  be  unperceived.    If  I  choose  to  make  my 


Ts.20,21]  KEEPING  IN  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  99 

abode  on  the  northern  side  of  the  mountain,  my  ther- 
mometer may  be  standing  at '  freezing,'  and  I  may  be 
shivering  in  all  my  limbs  on  Midsummer  Day  at  noon- 
tide. And  so  it  is  possible  for  us  Christian  people  to 
stray  away  out  from  that  gracious  abode,  to  pass  from 
the  illuminated  disc  into  the  black  shadow ;  and 
though  nothing  is  '  hid  from  the  heat  thereof,'  yet  we 
may  derive  no  warmth  and  no  enlightening  from  the 
all-pervading  beams.  We  have  to  '  keep  ourselves  in 
the  love  of  God.' 

Then  that  suggests  the  other  more  blessed  possibility, 
that  amidst  all  the  distractions  of  daily  duties,  and  the 
solicitations  of  carking  cares,  and  the  oppression  of 
heavy  sorrows,  it  is  possible  for  us  to  keep  ourselves 
perpetually  in  the  conscious  enjoyment  of  the  love  of 
God.  I  need  not  say  how  this  ideal  of  the  Christian 
life  may  be  indefinitely  approximated  to  in  our  daily 
experiences ;  nor  need  I  dwell  upon  the  sad  contrast 
between  this  ideal  unbrokenness  of  conscious  sunning 
ourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  and  the  reality  of  the 
lives  that  most  of  us  live.  But,  brethren,  if  we  more 
fully  believed  that  we  can  keep  up,  amidst  all  the  dust 
and  struggle  of  the  arena,  the  calm  sweet  sense  of 
God's  love,  our  lives  would  be  different.  Nightingales 
will  sing  in  a  dusty  copse  by  the  roadside,  however 
loud  the  noise  of  traffic  may  be  upon  the  highway. 
And  we  may  have,  all  through  our  lives,  that  song,  un- 
broken and  melodious.  That  sub-consciousness  under- 
lying our  daily  work,  'like  some  sweet  beguiling 
melody,  so  sweet,  we  know  not  we  are  listening  to  it,' 
may  be  ever  present  with  each  of  us  in  our  daily  work, 
like  some  '  hidden  brook  in  the  leafy  month  of  June,' 
that  murmurs  beneath  the  foliage,  and  yet  is  audible 
through  all  the  wood. 


100  JUDE  [CH.I. 

And  what  a  peaceful,  restful  life  ours  would  be,  if  we 
could  thus  be  like  John,  leaning  on  the  Master's  bosom. 
We  might  have  a  secret  fortress  into  the  central 
chamber  of  which  we  could  go,  whither  no  sound  of 
the  war  in  the  plains  could  ever  penetrate.  We  might, 
like  some  dwellers  in  a  mountainous  island,  take  refuge 
in  a  central  glen,  buried  deep  amongst  the  hills,  where 
there  would  be  no  sound  of  tempest,  though  the  winds 
were  fighting  on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and  the  spin- 
drift was  flying  before  them.  It  is  possible  to  *  keep 
ourselves  in  the  love  of  God.'  And  if  we  keep  in  that 
fortress  we  are  safe.  If  we  go  beyond  its  walls  we 
are  sure  to  be  picked  off  by  the  well-aimed  shots 
of  the  enemy.  So,  then,  that  is  the  central  command- 
ment for  the  Christian  life. 

II.  Now  let  me  turn  to  consider  the  methods  by 
which  we  can  thus  keep  ourselves  in  the  love  of  God. 

These  are  two :  one  mainly  bearing  on  the  outward, 
the  other  on  the  inward,  life.  By  *  building  up  your- 
selves on  your  most  holy  faith ' :  that  is  the  one.  By 
•  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost ':  that  is  the  other.  Let  us 
look  at  these  two. 

•Building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy  faith.'  I 
suppose  that '  faith  '  here  is  used  in  its  ordinary  sense. 
Some  would  rather  prefer  to  take  it  in  the  latter,  eccle- 
siastical sense,  by  which  it  means,  not  the  act  of  belief, 
but  the  aggregate  of  the  things  believed. — •  Our  most 
holy  faith,'  as  it  is  called  by  quotation — I  think  mis- 
quotation— of  this  passage.  But  I  do  not  see  that 
there  is  any  necessity  for  that  meaning.  The  words 
are  perfectly  intelligible  in  their  ordinary  meaning. 
What  Jude  says  is  just  this  ;  *  Your  trust  in  Jesus 
Christ  has  in  it  a  tendency  to  produce  holiness,  and 
that  is  the  foundation  on  which  you  are  to  build  a 


vs.20,21]  KEEPING  IN  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  101 

great  character.  Build  up  yourselves  on  your  most 
holy  faith.'  For  although  it  is  not  what  the  world's 
ethics  recognise,  the  Christian  theory  of  morality  is 
this,  that  it  all  rests  upon  trust  in  God  manifested 
to  us  in  Jesus  Christ.  Faith  is  the  foundation  of  all 
supreme  excellence  and  nobility  and  beauty  of  char- 
acter ;  because,  for  one  thing,  it  dethrones  self,  and 
enthrones  God  in  our  hearts;  making  Him  our  aim 
and  our  law  and  our  supreme  good  ;  and  because,  for 
another  thing,  our  trust  brings  us  into  direct  union 
with  Him,  so  that  we  receive  from  Him  the  power 
thus  to  build  up  a  character. 

Faith  is  the  foundation.  Ay !  but  faith  is  only  the 
foundation.  It  is  '  the  potentiality  of  wealth,'  but  it  is 
not  the  reality.  *  All  things  are  possible  to  him  that 
belie  voth ' ;  but  all  things  are  not  actual  except  on  con- 
ditions. A  man  may  have  faith,  as  a  great  many  pro- 
fessing Christians  have  it,  only  as  a  '  fire-escape,'  a 
means  of  getting  away  from  hell,  or  have  it  only  as  a 
hand  that  is  stretched  out  to  grasp  certain  initial  bless- 
ings of  the  spiritual  life.  But  that  is  not  its  full  glory 
nor  its  real  aspect.  It  is  meant  to  be  the  beginning  in 
us  of  *  all  things  that  are  lovely  and  of  good  report.' 
"What  would  you  think  of  a  man  that  carefully  put  in 
the  foundations  for  a  house,  and  had  all  his  building 
materials  on  the  ground,  and  let  them  lie  there  ?  And 
that  is  what  a  great  many  of  you  Christian  people  do, 
who '  have  fled  for  refuge,'  as  you  say,  *  to  the  hope  set  be- 
fore you  in  the  Gospel ' ;  and  who  have  never  wrought 
out  your  faith  into  noble  deeds.  Remember  what  the 
Apostle  says,  '  Faith  which  worketh ' ;  and  worketh 
•by  love.'  It  is  the  foundation,  but  only  the  foun- 
dation. 

The  work  of  building  a  noble  character  on  that  firm 


102  JUDE  [OH.  I. 

foundation  is  never-ending.  'Tis  a  life-long  task  *  till 
the  lump  be  leavened.'  The  metaphor  of  growth  by 
building  suggests  effort,  and  it  suggests  continuity; 
and  it  suggests  slow,  gradual  rearing  up,  course 
upon  course,  stone  by  stone.  Some  of  us  have  done 
nothing  at  it  for  a  great  many  years.  You  will  pass, 
sometimes,  in  our  suburbs,  a  row  of  houses  begun  by 
some  builder  that  has  become  bankrupt ;  and  there  are 
mouldering  bricks  and  gaping  empty  places  for  the 
windows,  and  the  rafters  decaying,  and  stagnant 
water  down  in  the  holes  that  were  meant  for  the 
cellars.  That  is  like  the  kind  of  thing  that  hosts  of 
people  who  call  themselves  Christians  have  built. 
'  But  ye,  beloved,  building  up  yourselves  on  your  most 
holy  faith,  .  .  .  Keep  yourselves  in  the  love.' 

Then  the  other  way  of  building  is  suggested  in  the 
next  clause,  '  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost ' — that  is  to 
say,  prayer  which  is  not  mere  utterance  of  my  own 
petulant  desires  which  a  great  deal  of  our  *  prayer '  is, 
but  which  is  breathed  into  us  by  that  Divine  Spirit 
that  will  brood  over  our  chaos,  and  bring  order  out  of 
confusion,  and  light  and  beauty  out  of  darkness,  and 
weltering  sea : — 

*  The  prayers  I  make  will  then  he  sweet  indeed, 
If  Thou  the  Spirit  give  by  which  I  pray.' 

As  Michael  Angelo  says,  such  prayer  inspired  and 
warmed  by  the  influences  of  that  Divine  Spirit  playing 
upon  the  dull  flame  of  our  desires,  like  air  injected  into 
a  grate  where  the  fire  is  half  out,  such  prayers  are 
our  best  help  in  building.  For  who  is  there  that  has 
honestly  tried  to  build  himself  up  •  for  a  habitation  of 
God '  but  has  felt  that  it  must  be  •  through  a  Spirit ' 
mightier  than  himself,  who  will  overcome  his  weak- 


v8.20,2l]  KEEPING  IN  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  108 

nesses  and  arm  him  against  temptation  ?  No  man  who 
honestly  endeavours  to  re-form  his  character  but  is 
brought  very  soon  to  feel  that  he  needs  a  higher  help 
than  his  own.  And  perhaps  some  of  us  know  how, 
when  sore  pressed  by  temptation,  one  petition  for  help 
brings  a  sudden  gush  of  strength  into  us,  and  we  feel 
that  the  enemy's  assault  is  weakened. 

Brethren,  the  best  attitude  for  building  is  on  our 
knees ;  and  if,  like  Cromwell's  men  in  the  fight,  we  go 
into  the  battle  singing, 

'  Let  God  arise,  and  scattered 
Let  all  His  enemies  be,' 

we  shall  come  out  victorious.  '  Ye,  beloved,  building 
and  praying,  keep  yourselves.' 

III.  Now,  lastly,  we  have  here  in  the  final  clause  the 
fair  prospect  visible  from  our  home,  in  the  love 
of  God. 

•Looking  for  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
unto  eternal  life.' 

After  all  building  and  praying,  we  need  *  the  mercy.' 
Jude  has  been  speaking  in  his  letter  about  the  destruc- 
tion of  evil-doers,  when  Christ  the  Judge  shall  come. 
And  I  suppose  that  that  thought  of  final  judgment  is 
still  in  his  mind,  colouring  the  language  of  my  text, 
and  that  it  explains  why  he  speaks  here  of  '  the  mercy 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ'  instead  of,  as  is  usual  in 
Scripture,  '  the  mercy  of  God.'  He  is  thinking  of  that 
last  Day  of  Judgment  and  retribution,  wherein  Jesus 
Christ  is  to  be  the  Judge  of  all  men,  saints  as  well  as 
sinners,  and  therefore  he  speaks  of  mercy  as  bestowed 
by  Him  then  on  those  who  have  '  kept  themselves  in  the 
love  of  God.'  Ah !  we  shall  need  it.  The  better  we 
are  the  more  we  know  how  much  wood,  hay,  stubble, 


104  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

we  have  built  into  our  buildings  ;  and  the  more  we  are 
conscious  of  that  love  of  God  as  round  us,  the  more 
we  shall  feel  the  unworthiness  and  imperfection  of 
our  response  to  it.  The  best  of  us,  when  we  lie  down 
to  die,  and  the  wisest  of  us,  as  we  struggle  on  in  life, 
realise  most  how  all  our  good  is  stained  and  imperfect, 
and  that  after  all  efforts  we  have  to  cry  '  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner.* 

Not  only  so,  but  our  outlook  and  confident  expecta- 
tion of  that  mercy  day  by  day,  and  in  its  perfect  form 
at  least,  depends  upon  our  keeping  ourselves  '  in  the 
love  of  God.'  We  have  to  go  high  up  the  hill  before  we 
can  see  far  over  the  plain.  Our  home  in  that  love  com- 
mands a  fair  prospect.  When  we  stray  from  it,  we  lose 
sight  of  the  blue  distance.  Our  hope  of  *  the  mercy  of 
God  unto  eternal  life '  varies  with  our  present  con- 
sciousness and  experience  of  His  love. 

That  mercy  leads  on  to  eternal  life.  We  get  many  of 
its  manifestations  and  gifts  here,  but  these  are  but  the 
pale  blossoms  of  a  plant  not  in  its  native  habitat, 
nor  sunned  by  the  sunshine  which  can  draw  forth  all 
its  fragrance  and  colour. 

We  have  to  look  forward  for  the  adequate  expres- 
sion of  the  mercy  of  God  to  all  that  fulness  of  perfect 
blessedness  for  all  our  faculties,  which  is  summed  up 
in  the  one  great  word — '  life  everlasting.' 

So  our  hope  ought  to  be  as  continuous  as  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  mercy,  and,  like  it,  should  last  until  the 
eternal  life  has  come.  All  our  gifts  here  are  fragment- 
ary and  imperfect.  Here  we  drink  of  brooks  by  the 
way.  There  we  shall  slake  our  thirst  at  the  fountain- 
head.  Here  we  are  given  ready  money  for  the  day's 
expenses.  There  we  shall  be  free  of  the  treasure- 
house,  where  lie  the  uncoined  and  uncounted  masses 


vs.  20, 21]     WITHOUT  STUMBLING  105 

of  bullion,  which  God  has  laid  up  in  store  for  them 
that  fear  Him.  So,  brethren,  let  us  hope  perfectly  for 
the  perfect  manifestation  of  the  mercy.  Let  us  set 
ourselves  to  build  up,  however  slowly,  the  fair  fabric 
of  a  life  and  character  which  shall  stand  when  the 
tempest  levels  all  houses  built  upon  the  sand.  Let  us 
open  our  spirits  to  the  entrance  of  that  Spirit  who 
helps  the  infirmities  of  our  desires  as  well  as  of  our 
efforts.  Thus  let  us  keep  ourselves  in  the  charmed 
circle  of  the  love  of  God,  that  we  may  be  safe  as  a 
garrison  in  its  fortress,  blessed  as  a  babe  on  its  mother's 
breast. 

Jude's  words  are  but  the  echo  of  the  tenderer  words 
of  his  Master  and  ours,  when  He  said, '  As  My  Father 
hath  loved  Me,  so  have  I  loved  you.  Abide  ye  in  My 
love.  If  ye  keep  My  commandments  ye  shall  abide  in 
My  love.' 


WITHOUT  STUMBLING 

'Now  unto  Him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  to  present  you  fault- 
less before  the  presence  of  His  glory  with  exceeding  joy,  25.  To  the  only  wise  God 
our  Saviour,  be  glory  and  majesty,  dominion  and  power,  both  now  and  ever. 
Amen.'— JuDE  24,  25. 

I  POINTED  out  in  a  recent  sermon  on  a  former  verse  of 
this  Epistle  that  the  earlier  part  of  it  is  occupied  with 
vehement  denunciations  of  the  moral  corruptions  that 
had  crept  into  the  Church,  and  that  the  writer  turns 
away  from  that  spectacle  earnestly  to  exhort  the 
Christian  community  to  'keep  themselves  in  the  love 
of  God,'  by  'building  themselves  upon  their  most  holy 
faith,  and  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost.'  But  that  is  not 
all  that  Jude  has  to  say.  It  is  wise  to  look  round  on 
the  dangers  and  evils  that  tempt ;  it  is  wise  to  look 
inward  to  the  weaknesses  that  may  yield  to  the  temp- 


106  JUDE  [CH.I. 

tations.  But  every  look  on  surrounding  dangers,  and 
every  look  at  personal  weakness,  ought  to  end  in  a 
look  upwards  '  to  Him  that  is  able  to  keep '  the  weakest 
'  from  falling '  before  the  assaults  of  the  strongest  foes. 

The  previous  exhortation,  which  I  have  discussed, 
might  seem  to  lay  almost  too  much  stress  on  our  own 
strivings — '  Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God.'  Here 
is  the  complement  to  it:  •Unto  Him  that  is  able  to 
keep  you  from  falling.'  So  denunciations,  exhortations, 
warnings,  all  end  in  the  peaceful  gaze  upon  God,  and 
the  triumphant  recognition  of  what  He  is  able  to  do 
for  us.  We  have  to  work,  but  we  have  to  remember 
that '  it  is  He  that  worketh  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do 
of  His  own  good  pleasure.' 

I.  So  I  think  that,  looking  at  these  great  words,  the 
first  thing  to  be  noted  is  the  solitary,  all-sufficient  stay 
for  our  weakness. 

'  To  the  only  wise  God  our  Saviour.'  Now  it  is  to  be 
noticed,  as  those  of  you  who  use  the  Revised  Version 
will  observe,  that  the  word  *  wise '  seems  to  have  crept 
in  here  by  the  reminiscence  of  another  similar  doxology 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  was  probably  in- 
serted by  some  scribe  who  had  not  grasped  the  great 
thought  of  which  the  text  is  the  expression.  It  ought 
to  read,  '  to  the  only  God,  our  Saviour.'  The  writer's 
idea  seems  to  be  just  this — he  has  been  massing  in  a 
dark  crowd  the  whole  multitudinous  mob  of  corrup- 
tions and  evils  that  were  threatening  the  faith  and 
righteousness  of  professing  Christians.  And  he  turns 
away  from  all  that  rabble,  multitudinous  as  they  are, 
to  look  to  the  One  who  is  all-sufficient,  solitary,  and 
enough.  '  The  only  God '  is  the  refuge  from  the  crowds 
of  evils  that  dog  our  steps,  and  from  the  temptations 
and  foes  that  assail  us  at  every  point. 


vs.  24, 26]     WITHOUT  STUMBLING  107 

This  is  the  blessed  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  faith, 
that  it  simplifies  our  outlook  for  good,  that  it  brings 
everything  to  the  one  point  of  possessing  the  one 
Person,  beyond  whom  there  is  never  any  need  that 
the  heart  should  wander  seeking  after  love,  that  the 
mind  should  depart  in  its  search  for  truth,  or  that  the 
will  should  stray  in  its  quest  after  authoritative  com- 
mands. There  is  no  need  to  seek  a  multitude  of  goodly 
pearls ;  the  gift  of  Christianity  to  men's  torn  and  dis- 
tracted hearts  and  lives  is  that  all  which  makes  them 
rich,  and  all  which  makes  them  blessed,  is  sphered  and 
included  in  the  one  transcendent  pearl  of  price,  the 
*  only  God.' 

I  have  been  in  Turkish  mosques,  the  roofs  of  which 
are  held  up  by  a  bewildering  forest  of  slender  pillars. 
I  have  been  in  cathedral  chapter-houses,  where  one 
strong  stone  shaft  in  the  centre  carries  all  the  beauty 
of  the  branching  roof ;  and  I  know  which  is  the  highest 
work  and  the  fairest.  Why  should  we  seek  in  the 
manifold  for  what  we  can  never  find,  when  we  can 
find  it  all  in  the  One  ?  The  mind  seeks  for  unity  in 
truth ;  the  heart  seeks  for  oneness  in  love  ;  no  man  is 
at  rest  until  he  has  all  his  heart's  treasures  in  one 
person ;  and  no  man  who  foolishly  puts  all  his  treasures 
in  one  creature-person  but  is  bringing  down  upon  his 
own  head  sorrow. 

Do  you  remember  that  pathetic  inscription  in  one  of 
our  country  churches,  over  a  little  child,  whose  fair 
image  is  left  us  by  the  pencil  of  Reynolds  :  '  Her  parents 
put  all  their  wealth  in  one  vessel,  and  the  shipwreck 
was  total '  ?  It  is  madness  to  trust  to  but  one  refuge, 
unless  that  refuge  is  the  only  God.  If  we,  like  the 
disciples  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  are  wise,  we 
shall  lift  up  our  eyes  and  '  see  no  man  any  more,  save 


108  JUDE  [CH.  I. 

Jesus  only.'  He  can  be  our  solitary  Stay,  Refuge, 
Wealth,  and  Companion,  because  He  is  sufficient,  and 
He  abides  for  ever. 

But  there  is  another  peculiarity  that  I  would  point 
out  in  these  words,  and  that  is  the  unusual  attribution 
to  God,  the  Father,  of  the  name  '  Saviour ' — *  the  only 
God  our  Saviour.'  The  same  various  reading  which 
strikes  out  *  wise '  inserts  here,  as  you  will  see  in  the 
Revised  Version, '  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.'  But 
although  the  phraseology  is  almost  unique,  the  mean- 
ing is  in  full  harmony  with  the  scope  of  New  Testament 
teaching.  It  is  a  fault  of  evangelical  and  orthodox 
people  that  they  have  too  often  spoken  and  thought 
as  if  Jesus  Christ's  work  modified  and  changed  the 
Father's  will,  and  as  if  God  loved  men  because  Christ 
died  for  them.  The  fact  is  precisely  the  converse. 
Christ  died  because  God  loved  men;  and  the  fontal 
source  of  the  salvation,  of  which  the  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  channel,  bringing  it  to  men,  is  the  eternal, 
unmotived,  infinite  love  of  God  the  Father.  Christ  is 
'  the  well-beloved  Son,'  because  He  is  the  executor  of 
the  Divine  purpose,  and  all  which  He  has  done  is  done 
in  obedience  to  the  Father's  will.  If  I  might  use  a 
metaphor,  the  love  of  God  is,  as  it  were,  a  deep  secluded 
lake  amongst  the  mountains,  and  the  work  of  Christ  is 
the  stream  that  comes  from  it,  and  brings  its  waters 
to  be  life  to  the  world.  Let  us  never  forget  that,  how- 
ever we  love  to  turn  our  gratitude  and  our  praise  to 
Christ  the  Saviour,  my  text  goes  yet  deeper  into  the 
councils  of  Eternity  when  it  ascribes  the  praise  '  to  the 
only  God  our  Saviour  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.' 

II.  And  now  notice  the  possibility  of  firm  standing 
in  the  slippery  present. 

*  To  Him  that  ia  able  to  keep  us  from  falling.'    Now 


V8.24,25]      WITHOUT  STUMBLING  109 

the  word  that  is  rendered  *  from  falling '  is  even  more 
emphatic,  and  carries  a  larger  promise.  For  it  literally 
means '  without  stumbling,'  and  stumbling  is  that  which 
precedes  falling.  "We  are  not  only  kept  from  falling, 
we  are  kept  even  from  stumbling  over  the  stumbling- 
stones  that  are  in  the  way.  The  metaphor,  perhaps, 
was  suggested  by  the  words  of  Isaiah,  who,  in  one  of 
his  lovely  images,  describes  God  as  •  leading  Israel 
through  the  depths  as  a  horse  in  the  desert,  that  they 
stumble  not.'  Do  you  not  see  the  picture  ?  The 
nervous,  susceptible  animal,  slipping  and  sliding  over 
the  smooth  rock,  in  a  sweat  of  terror,  and  the  owner 
laying  a  kindly  hand  and  a  firm  one  on  the  bridle-rein, 
and  speaking  soothing  words  of  encouragement,  and 
leading  it  safely,  that  it  stumble  not.  So  God  is  able 
to  lay  hold  of  us  when  we  are  in  perilous  places,  and 
when  we  cry,  'My  foot  slippeth,'  His  mercy  will  hold  usup. 
Is  that  rhetoric?  Is  that  merely  pulpit  talk?  Brethren, 
unless  we  lay  firm  hold  of  this  faith,  that  God  can  and 
does  touch  and  influence  hearts  that  wait  upon  Him, 
so  as  by  His  Spirit  and  by  His  Word,  which  is  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit,  to  strengthen  their  feeble  good,  and  to 
weaken  their  strong  evil,  to  raise  what  is  low,  to 
illumine  what  is  dark,  and  to  support  what  is  weak, 
we  have  not  come  to  understand  the  whole  wealth  of 
possible  good  and  blessedness  which  lies  in  the  Gospel. 
This  generation  has  forgotten  far  too  much  the  place 
which  the  work  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  on  men's  spirits 
fills  in  the  whole  proportioned  scheme  of  New  Testa- 
ment revelation.  It  is  because  we  believe  that  so 
little,  in  comparison  with  the  clearness  and  strength 
of  our  faith  in  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  atoning 
sacrifice,  that  so  many  of  us  find  it  so  foreign  to  our 
experience  that  any  effluences  from  God  come  into  our 


110  JUDE  [OH.  I. 

hearts,  and  that  our  spirits  are  conscious  of  being 
quickened  and  lifted  by  His  Spirit !  Ah !  we  might  feel, 
far  more  than  any  of  us  do,  His  hand  on  the  bridle-rein. 
We  might  feel,  far  more  than  any  of  us  do.  His  strong 
upholding,  keeping  our  feet  from  slipping  as  well  as 
'falling.*  And  if  we  believed  and  expected  a  Divine 
Spirit  to  enter  into  our  spirits  and  to  touch  our  hearts, 
the  expectation  would  not  be  in  vain. 

I  beseech  you,  believe  that  a  solid  experience  and 
meaning  lies  in  that  word  '  able  to  keep  us  from  stum- 
bling.' If  we  have  that  Divine  Spirit  moving  in  our 
spirits,  moulding  our  desires,  lifting  our  thoughts,  con- 
firming our  wills,  then  the  things  that  were  stumbling- 
stones — that  is  to  say,  that  appealed  to  our  worst 
selves,  and  tempted  us  to  evil — will  cease  to  be  so.  The 
higher  desires  will  kill  the  lower  ones,  as  the  sunshine 
is  popularly  supposed  to  put  out  household  fires.  If 
we  have  God's  upholding  help,  the  stumbling-stone  will 
no  more  be  a  stumbling-stone,  but  a  stepping-stone  to 
something  higher  and  better;  or  like  one  of  those 
erections  that  we  see  outside  old-fashioned  houses  of 
entertainment,  where  three  or  four  steps  are  piled 
together,  in  order  to  enable  a  man  the  more  easily  to 
mount  his  horse  and  go  on  his  way.  For  every  tempta- 
tion overcome  brings  strength  to  the  overcomer. 

Only  let  us  remember  'Him  that  is  able  to  keep.' 
Able !  What  is  wanted  that  the  ability  may  be  brought 
into  exercise;  that  the  possibility  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  of  firm  standing  amongst  those  slippery  places, 
shall  become  a  reality  ?  What  is  wanted  ?  It  is  of  no 
use  to  have  a  stay  unless  you  lean  on  it.  You  may 
have  an  engine  of  ever  so  many  horse-power  in  the 
engine-house,  but  unless  the  power  is  transmitted  by 
shafts  and  belting,  and  brought  to  the  machinery,  not 
a  spindle  will  revolve.     He  is  able  to  keep  us  from 


vs.  24, 26]      WITHOUT  STUMBLING  111 

stumbling,  and  if  you  trust  Him,  the  ability  will  become 
actuality,  and  you  will  be  kept  from  falling.  If  you 
do  not  trust  Him,  all  the  ability  will  lie  in  the  engine- 
house,  and  the  looms  and  the  spindles  will  stand  idle. 
So  the  reason  why — and  the  only  reason  why — with 
such  an  abundant,  and  over-abundant,  provision  for 
never  falling.  Christian  men  do  stumble  and  fall,  is 
their  own  lack  of  faith. 

Now  remember  that  this  text  of  mine  follows  on  the 
heels  of  that  former  text  which  bade  us  *  build  our- 
selves,' and  *  keep  ourselves  in  the  love  of  God.'  So  you 
get  the  peculiarity  of  Christian  ethics,  and  the  blessed- 
ness of  Christian  effort,  that  it  is  not  effort  only,  but 
effort  rising  from,  and  accompanied  with,  confidence 
in  God's  keeping  hand.  There  is  all  the  difference  be- 
tween toiling  without  trust  and  toiling  because  we  do 
trust.  And  whilst,  on  the  one  hand,  we  have  to  exhort 
to  earnest  faith  in  the  upholding  hand  of  God,  we  have 
to  say  on  the  other,  '  Let  that  faith  lead  you  to  obey 
the  apostolic  command,  "Stand  fast  in  the  evil  day 
.  .  .  taking  unto  you  the  whole  armour  of  God." ' 

III.  Further,  we  have  here  the  possible  final  perfect- 
ing in  the  future. 

'To  Him  that  is  able  ...  to  present  you  faultless 
before  the  presence  of  His  glory  with  exceeding  joy.' 
Now  that  word  rendered  '  faultless '  has  a  very  beauti- 
ful meaning.  It  is  originally  applied  to  the  require- 
ment that  the  sacrificial  offerings  shall  be  without 
blemish.  It  is  then  applied  more  than  once  to  our 
Lord  Himself,  as  expressive  of  His  perfect,  immaculate 
sinlessness.  And  it  is  here  applied  to  the  future  con- 
dition of  those  who  have  been  kept  without  stumbling ; 
suggesting  at  once  that  they  are,  as  it  were,  presented 
before  God  at  last,  stainless  as  the  sacrificial  lamb ; 
and  that  they  are  conformed  to  the  image  of  the  Lamb 


112  JUDE  [CH.I. 

of  God  'without  blemish  and  without  spot.'  Moral 
perf ectness,  absolute  and  complete  ;  a  standing  '  before 
the  presence  of  His  glory,'  the  realisation  and  the 
vision  of  that  illustrious  light,  too  dazzling  for  eyes 
veiled  by  flesh  to  look  upon,  but  of  which  hereafter  the 
purified  souls  will  be  capable,  in  accordance  with  that 
great  promise,  *  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they 
shall  see  God ' ;  *  with  exceeding  joy,'  which  refers  not 
to  the  joy  of  Him  that  presents,  though  that  is  great, 
but  to  the  joy  of  them  who  are  presented.  So  these 
three  things  are  the  possibilities  held  out  before  such 
poor  creatures  as  we.  And  miraculous  as  it  is,  that 
all  stains  should  melt  away  from  our  characters — 
though  I  suppose  not  the  remembrance  of  them  from  our 
consciousness — and  be  shaken  off  as  completely  as  the 
foul  water  of  some  stagnant  pond  drops  from  the  white 
swan-plumage,  and  leaves  no  stain ;  that  perfecting  is 
the  natural  issue  of  the  present  being  kept  from 
stumbling. 

You  have  seen  sometimes  in  a  picture- dealer's  shop 
window  a  canvas  on  which  a  face  is  painted,  one  half 
of  which  has  been  cleaned,  and  the  other  half  is  still 
covered  with  some  varnish  or  filth.  That  is  like  the 
Christian  character  here.  But  the  restoration  and  the 
cleansing  are  going  to  be  finished  up  yonder  ;  and  the 
great  Artist's  ideal  will  be  realised,  and  each  redeemed 
soul  will  be  perfected  in  holiness. 

But  as  I  said  about  the  former  point,  so  I  say  about 
this,  He  is  able  to  do  it.  What  is  wanted  to  make  the 
ability  an  actuality?  Brethren,  if  we  are  to  stand 
perfect,  at  last,  and  be  without  fault  before  the  Throne 
of  God,  we  must  begin  by  letting  Him  keep  us  from 
stumbling  here.  Then,  and  only  then,  may  we  expect 
that  issue. 


vs.  24, 26]      WITHOUT  STUMBLING  118 

Now  I  vs'aa  going  to  have  said  a  word,  in  the  last 
place,  about  the  Divine  praise  which  comes  from  all 
these  dealings,  but  your  time  will  not  allow  me  to 
dwell  upon  it.  Only  let  me  remind  you  that  all  these 
things,  which  in  my  text  are  ascribed  to  God,  '  glory 
and  majesty,  dominion  and  power,'  are  ascribed  to  Him 
because  He  is  our  Saviour,  and  able  to  keep  us  from 
stumbling,  and  to  'present  us  faultless  before  His 
glory.'  That  is  to  say,  the  Divine  manifestation  of 
Himself  in  the  work  of  redemption  is  the  highest  of 
His  self-revealing  works.  Men  are  not  presumptuous 
when  they  feel  that  they  are  greater  than  sun  and 
stars ;  and  that  there  is  more  in  the  narrow  room  of  a 
human  heart  than  in  all  the  immeasurable  spaces  of 
the  universe,  if  these  are  empty  of  beings  who  can  love 
and  inquire  and  adore.  And  we  are  not  wrong  when 
we  say  that  the  only  evil  in  the  universe  is  sin.  There- 
fore, we  are  right  when  we  say  that  high  above  all 
other  works  of  which  we  have  experience  is  that 
miracle  of  love  and  Divine  power  which  can  not  only 
keep  such  feeble  creatures  as  we  are  from  stumbling, 
but  can  present  us  stainless  and  faultless  before  the 
Throne  of  God. 

So  our  highest  praise,  and  our  deepest  thankfulness, 
ought  to  arise,  and  will  arise — if  the  possibility  has 
become,  in  any  measure,  an  actuality,  in  ourselves — to 
Him,  because  our  experience  will  be  that  of  the 
Psalmist  who  sang,  'When  I  said,  my  foot  slippeth, 
Thy  mercy,  O  Lord,  held  me  up.'  Let  us  take  the 
comfort  of  believing,  'He  shall  not  fall,  for  the  Lord 
is  able  to  make  him  stand ' ;  and  let  us  remember  the 
expansion  which  another  Apostle  gives  us  when,  with 
precision,  he  discriminates  and  says,  'Kept  by  the 
power  of  God  through  faith,  unto  salvation.' 

H 


REVELATION 

THE  GIFTS  OF  CHRIST  AS  WITNESS,  RISEN 
AND  CROWNED 

'Oraee  be  unto  yon,  and  peace,  from  ...  5.  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  faithful 
Witness,  and  the  first  begotten  of  the  dead,  and  the  Prince  of  the  kings  of  the 
earth.'— Rbv.  i.  4, 6. 

So  loftily  did  John  in  hie  old  age  come  to  think  of  his 
Lord.  The  former  days  of  blessed  nearness  had  not 
faded  from  his  memory ;  rather  he  understood  their 
meaning  better  than  when  he  was  in  the  midst  of  their 
sweetness.  Years  and  experience,  and  the  teaching  of 
God's  Spirit,  had  taught  Him  to  understand  what  the 
Master  meant  when  He  said  : — *  It  is  expedient  for  you 
that  I  go  away ' ;  for  when  He  had  departed  John  saw 
Him  a  great  deal  more  clearly  than  ever  he  had  done 
when  he  beheld  Him  with  his  eyes.  He  sees  Him  now 
invested  with  these  lofty  attributes,  and,  so  to  speak, 
involved  in  the  brightness  of  the  Throne  of  God.  For 
the  words  of  my  text  are  not  only  remarkable  in  them- 
selves, and  in  the  order  in  which  they  give  these  three 
aspects  of  our  Lord's  character,  but  remarkable  also  in 
that  they  occur  in  an  invocation  in  which  the  Apostle 
is  calling  down  blessings  from  Heaven  on  the  heads  of 
his  brethren.  The  fact  that  they  do  so  occur  points  a 
question :  Is  it  possible  to  conceive  that  the  writer  of 
these  words  thought  of  Jesus  Christ  as  less  than 
divine  ?  Could  he  have  asked  for  '  grace  and  peace '  to 
come  down  on  the  Asiatic  Christians  from  the  divine 


V.  4]  GIFTS  OF  THE  CROWNED  CHRIST  115 

Father,  and  an  Abstraction,  and  a  Man?  A  strange 
Trinity  that  would  be,  most  certainly.  Rightly  or 
wrongly,  the  man  that  said,  *  Grace  and  peace  be  unto 
you,  from  Him  which  is,  and  which  was,  and  which  is 
to  come,  and  from  the  seven  Spirits  which  are  before 
His  Throne,  and  from  Jesus  Christ,'  believed  that  the 
name  of  the  One  God  was  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  to  this  as  to  the  connection  of 
these  three  clauses  with  one  another,  and  to  the  bearing 
of  all  three  on  our  Lord's  power  of  giving  grace  and 
peace  to  men's  hearts,  that  I  want  to  turn  your  atten- 
tion now.  I  take  the  words  simply  as  they  lie  here; 
asking  you  to  consider,  first,  how  grace  and  peace  come 
to  us  '  from  the  faithful  Witness  ' ;  how,  secondly,  they 
come  'from  the  first  begotten  from  the  dead';  and 
how,  lastly,  they  come  *  from  the  Prince  of  the  kings 
of  the  earth.' 

I.  Now  as  to  the  first  of  these,  *  the  faithful  Witness.' 
All  of  you  who  have  any  familiarity  with  the  language 
of  Scripture  will  know  that  a  characteristic  of  all  the 
writings  which  are  ascribed  to  the  Apostle  John,  viz., 
his  Gospel,  his  Epistles,  and  the  book  of  the  Revelation, 
is  their  free  and  remarkable  use  of  that  expression, 
*  Witness.'  It  runs  through  all  of  them,  and  is  one  of 
the  many  threads  of  connection  which  tie  them  all 
together,  and  which  constitute  a  very  strong  argument 
for  the  common  authorship  of  the  three  sets  of  writings, 
vehemently  as  that  has  of  late  been  denied. 

But  where  did  John  get  this  word?  According  to 
his  own  teaching  he  got  it  from  the  lips  of  the  Master, 
who  began  His  career  with  these  words,  'We  speak 
that  we  do  know,  and  bear  witness  to  that  we  have 
seen,'  and  who  all  but  ended  it  with  these  royal  words, 


116  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

*  Thou  sayest  that  I  am  a  King !  For  this  cause  came  I 
into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the 
Truth.'  Christ  Himself,  then,  claimed  to  be  in  an 
eminent  and  special  sense  the  witness  to  the  world. 

The  witness  of  what  ?  What  was  the  substance  of 
His  testimony  ?  It  was  a  testimony  mainly  about  God. 
The  words  of  my  text  substantially  cover  the  same 
ground  as  His  own  words,  •  I  have  declared  Thy  name 
unto  My  brethren,'  and  as  those  of  the  Apostle :  '  The 
only  begotten  Son  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father, 
He  hath  declared  Him.'  And  they  involve  the  same 
ideas  as  lie  in  the  great  name  by  which  He  is  called  in 
John's  Gospel,  *  the  Word  of  God.' 

That  is  to  say,  all  our  highest  and  purest  and  best 
knowledge  of  God  comes  from  the  life  and  conduct  and 
character  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  revelation  is  no  mere 
revelation  by  words.  Plenty  of  men  have  talked  about 
God,  and  said  noble  and  true  and  blessed  things  about 
Him.  Scattered  through  the  darkness  of  heathenism, 
and  embedded  in  the  sinfulness  of  every  man's  heart, 
there  are  great  and  lofty  and  pure  thoughts  about 
Him,  which  to  cleave  to  and  follow  out  would  bring 
strength  and  purity.  It  is  one  thing  to  speak  about 
God  in  words,  maxims,  precepts ;  it  is  another  thing  to 
show  us  God  in  act  and  life.  The  one  is  theology,  the 
other  is  gospel.  The  one  is  the  work  of  man,  the  other 
is  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh. 

It   is  not  Christ's  words  only  that  make  Him  the 

•  Amen,'  the  '  faithful  and  true  Witness,'  but  in  addition 
to  these.  He  witnesses  by  all  His  deeds  of  grace,  and 
truth,  and  gentleness,  and  pity;  by  all  His  yearnings 
over  wickedness,  and  sorrow,  and  sinfulness;  by  all 
His  drawings  of  the  profligate  and  the  outcast  and  the 


V.4]  GIFTS  OF  THE  CROWNED  CHRIST  117 

guilty  to  Himself,  His  life  of  loneliness,  His  death  of 
shame.  In  all  these.  He  is  showing  us  not  only  the 
sweetness  of  a  perfect  human  character,  but  in  the 
sweetness  of  a  perfect  human  character,  the  sweeter 
sweetness  of  our  Father,  God.  The  substance  of  His 
testimony  is  the  Name,  the  revelation  of  the  character 
of  His  Father  and  our  Father. 

This  name  of  '  witness '  bears  likewise  strongly  upon 
the  characteristic  and  remarkable  manner  of  our  Lord's 
testimony.  The  task  of  a  witness  is  to  affirm ;  his 
business  is  to  tell  his  story — not  to  argue  about  it, 
simply  to  state  it.  And  there  is  nothing  more  charac- 
teristic of  our  Lord's  words  than  the  way  in  which, 
without  attempt  at  proof  or  argumentation.  He  makes 
them  stand  on  their  own  evidence ;  or,  rather,  depend 
upon  His  veracity.  All  His  teaching  is  characterised 
by  what  would  be  insane  presumption  in  any  of  us, 
and  would  at  once  rule  us  out  of  court  as  unfit  to  be 
listened  to  on  any  grave  subject,  most  of  all  on  religious 
truth.  For  His  method  is  this :  •  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
to  you !  Take  it  on  My  word.  You  ask  Me  for  proof 
of  My  saying :  I  am  the  proof  of  it ;  I  assert  it.  That 
is  enough  for  you ! '  Not  so  do  men  speak.  So  does 
the  faithful  Witness  speak;  and  instead  of  the  con- 
science and  common-sense  of  the  world  rising  up  and 
eaj^ing,  *  This  is  the  presumption  of  a  religious  madman 
and  dictator,'  they  have  bowed  before  Him  and  said, 
'Thou  art  fairer  than  the  children  of  men!  Grace  is 
poured  into  Thy  lips.'  He  is  the  'faithful  Witness, 
who  lays  His  own  character  and  veracity  as  the  basis 
of  what  He  has  to  say,  and  has  no  mightier  word  by 
which  to  bf  ck  His  testimony  than  His  own  sovereign 
'Verily!  verily!* 

The  name  bears,  too,  on  the  ground  of  His  testimony. 


118  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

A  faithful  witness  is  an  eye-witness.  And  that  is 
what  Christ  claims  when  He  witnesses  about  God. 
•  We  speak  that  we  do  know,  we  testify  that  we  have 
seen.'  *I  speak  that  which  I  have  seen  with  My 
Father ! '  There  is  nothing  more  remarkable  about  the 
oral  portion  of  our  Lord's  witness  than  the  absence  of 
any  appearance,  such  as  marks  all  the  wisest  words 
of  great  men,  of  having  come  to  them  as  the  result  of 
patient  thought.  We  never  see  Him  in  the  act  of 
arriving  at  a  truth,  nor  detect  any  traces  of  the  process 
of  forming  opinions  in  Him.  He  speaks  as  if  He  had 
seen,  and  His  tone  is  that  of  one  who  is  not  thinking 
out  truth  or  grasping  at  it,  but  simply  narrating  that 
which  lies  plain  and  clear  ever  before  His  eyes.  I  do 
not  ask  you  what  that  involves,  but  I  quote  His  own 
statement  of  what  it  involves :  •  No  man  hath  ascended 
up  into  Heaven  save  He  that  came  down  from  Heaven, 
even  the  Son  of  Man  which  is  in  Heaven.' 

There  have  been  plenty  of  great  and  gracious  words 
about  God,  and  there  have  been  plenty  of  black  and 
blasphemous  thoughts  of  Him.  They  rise  in  our  own 
hearts,  and  they  come  from  our  brothers'  tongues. 
Men  have  worshipped  gods  gracious,  gods  loving,  gods 
angry,  gods  petulant,  gods  capricious ;  but  God  after 
the  fashion  of  the  God  whom  Jesus  Christ  avouches  to 
us,  we  have  nowhere  else,  a  God  of  absolute  love,  who 
•so  loved  the  world' — that  is,  you  and  me — 'that  He 
gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  should  not  perish.' 

And  now  I  ask,  is  there  not  grace  and  peace  brought 
to  us  all  from  that  faithful  Witness,  and  from  His 
credible  testimony?  Surely  the  one  thing  that  the 
world  wants  is  to  have  the  question  answered  whether 
there  really  is  a  God  in  Heaven  that  cares  anything 


T.  4]  GIFTS  OF  THE  CROWNED  CHRIST  119 

about  me,  and  to  whom  I  can  trust  myself  wholly ; 
believing  that  He  will  lift  me  out  of  all  my  meannesses 
and  sins,  and  make  me  clean  and  pure  and  blessed  like 
Himself.  Surely  that  is  the  deepest  of  all  human  needs, 
howsoever  little  men  may  know  it.  And  sure  I  am 
that  none  of  us  can  find  the  certitude  of  such  a  Father 
unless  we  give  credence  to  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord. 

This  day  needs  that  witness  as  much  as  any  other ; 
sometimes  in  our  unbelieving  moments,  we  think  Tnore 
than  any  other.  There  is  a  wave — I  believe  it  is  only  a 
wave— passing  over  the  cultivated  thought  of  Europe 
at  present  which  will  make  short  work  of  all  belief  in 
a  God  that  does  not  grip  fast  to  Jesus  Christ.  As  far 
as  I  can  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  the  tendency 
of  modern  thinking,  it  is  this : — either  an  absolute 
Silence,  a  Heaven  stretching  above  us,  blue  and  clear, 
and  cold,  and  far  away,  and  dumb ;  or  else  a  Christ  that 
speaks — He  or  none  I  The  Theism  that  has  shaken 
itself  loose  from  Him  will  be  crushed,  I  am  sure,  in  the 
encounter  with  the  agnosticism  and  the  materialism 
of  this  day.  And  the  one  refuge  is  to  lay  fast  hold  of 
the  old  truth : — ♦  The  only  begotten  Son  which  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared  Him.' 

Oh !  you  orphan  children  that  have  forgotten  your 
Father,  and  have  turned  prodigals  and  rebels ;  you 
that  have  begun  to  doubt  if  there  is  any  one  above  this 
low  earth  that  cares  for  you ;  you  that  have  got  bewil- 
dered and  befogged  amidst  the  manifold  denials  and 
controversies  of  this  day ;  come  back  to  the  one  voice 
that  speaks  to  us  in  tones  of  confident  certainty  as 
from  personal  knowledge  of  a  Father.  '  He  that  hath 
seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father,'  says  Jesus  to  us  all: 
•  hearken  unto  Me,  and  know  God,  whom  to  know  in 


120  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

Me  is  eternal  life.'  Listen  to  Him.  Without  His 
testimony  you  will  be  the  sport  of  fears,  and  doubts, 
and  errors.  With  it  in  your  hearts  you  will  be  at 
rest.   Grace  and  peace  come  from  the  faithful  Witness. 

II.  We  have  grace  and  peace  from  the  Conqueror  of 
Death. 

The  *  first  begotten  from  the  dead '  does  not  precisely 
convey  the  idea  of  the  original,  which  would  be  more 
accurately  represented  by  '  the  first  born  from  the 
dead' — the  resurrection  being  looked  upon  as  a  kind  of 
birth  into  a  higher  order  of  life.  It  is,  perhaps,  scarcely 
necessary  to  observe  that  the  accuracy  of  this  designa- 
tion, '  the  first  born  from  the  dead,'  as  applied  to  our 
Lord,  is  not  made  questionable  because  of  the  mere 
fact  that  there  were  others  who  rose  from  the  dead 
before  His  resurrection,  for  all  of  these  died  again. 
What  a  strange  feeling  that  must  have  been  for  Lazarus 
and  the  others,  to  go  twice  through  the  gates  of  death ; 
twice  to  know  the  pain  and  the  pang  of  separation ! 
But  these  all  have  been  gathered  to  the  dust,  and  lie 
now  waiting  'the  adoption,  that  is  the  resurrection  of 
the  body.'  But  this  Man,  being  raised,  dieth  no  more, 
death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  Him.  And  how  is 
it  that  grace  and  peace  come  to  us  from  the  risen 
Witness  ?     Two  or  three  words  may  be  said  about  that. 

Think  how,  first  of  all,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  confirmation  of  His  testimony.  In  it  the 
Father,  to  whom  He  hath  borne  witness  in  His  life  and 
death,  bears  witness  to  Christ,  that  His  claims  were 
true  and  His  work  well-pleasing.  He  is  '  declared  to  be 
the  Son  of  God  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead.'  If 
our  Lord  did  not  rise  from  the  dead,  as  all  Christen- 
dom to-day  ^  has  been  declaring  its  faith  that  He  did, 

1  Easter  Sunday. 


V.4]  GIFTS  OF  THE  CROWNED  CHRIST  121 

then,  as  it  seems  to  me,  there  is  an  end  to  His  claims 
to  be  Son  of  God,  and  Son  of  Man,  or  anything  other 
than  a  man  like  the  rest  of  us.  If  He  be  no  more 
and  naught  else  than  a  man,  altogether  like  the  rest  of 
U3,  then  there  is  an  end  to  any  special  revelation  of  the 
Divine  nature,  heart,  purposes,  and  v^^ill,  in  His  works 
and  character.  They  may  still  be  beautiful,  they  may 
still  reveal  God  in  the  same  sense  in  virhich  the  doings 
of  any  good  man  suggest  a  fontal  source  of  goodness 
from  which  they  flow,  but  beyond  that  they  are 
nothing.  So  all  the  truth,  and  all  the  peace,  all  the 
grace  and  hope  which  flow  to  us  from  the  witness  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  the  Father,  are  neutralised  and 
destroyed  unless  we  believe  in  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead.  His  words  may  still  remain  gracious,  and 
true  in  a  measure,  only  all  dashed  with  the  terrible 
mistake  that  He  asserted  that  He  would  rise  again, 
and  rose  not.  But  as  for  Ilis  life,  it  ceases  to  be  in  any 
real  sense,  because  it  ceases  to  be  in  any  unique  sense, 
the  revelation  to  the  world  of  the  character  of  God. 

And  therefore,  as  I  take  it,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  the  whole  fabric  of  Christianity,  and  all 
Christ's  worth  as  a  witness  to  God,  stand  or  fall  with 
the  fact  of  His  resurrection.  If  you  pull  out  that  key- 
stone, down  comes  the  arch.  There  may  still  be  fair 
carving  on  some  of  the  fallen  fragments,  but  it  is  no 
longer  an  arch  that  spans  the  great  gulf,  and  has  a  firm 
pier  on  the  other  side.  Strike  away  the  resurrection 
and  you  fatally  damage  the  witness  of  Jesus.  You 
cannot  strike  the  supernatural  out  of  Christianity,  and 
keep  the  natural.  The  two  are  so  inextricably  woven 
together  that  to  wrench  away  the  one  lacerates  the 
other,  and  makes  it  bleed,  even  to  death.  If  Christ  be 
not  risen  we  have  nothing  to  preach,  and  you  have 


122  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

nothing  to  believe.  Our  preaching  and  your  faith  are 
alike  vain :  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins.  Grace  and  peace 
come  from  faith  in  the  '  first  begotten  from  the  dead.' 

And  that  is  true  in  another  way  too.  Faith  in  the 
resurrection  gives  us  a  living  Lord  to  confide  in — not  a 
dead  Lord,  whose  work  we  may  look  back  upon  with 
thankfulness ;  but  a  living  one,  who  works  now  upon 
us,  and  by  whose  true  companionship  and  real  affec- 
tion strength  and  help  are  granted  to  us  every  day. 
The  cold  frost  of  death  has  not  congealed  that  stream 
of  love  that  poured  from  His  heart  while  He  lived  on 
earth  ;  it  flows  yet  for  each  of  us,  for  all  of  us,  for  the 
whole  world. 

My  brother,  we  cannot  do  without  a  living  Christ  to 
stand  beside  us,  to  sympathise,  to  help,  to  love.  We 
cannot  do  without  a  living  Christ  with  whom  we  may 
speak,  who  will  speak  to  us.  And  that  communion 
which  is  blessedness,  that  communication  of  power  and 
righteousness  which  is  life,  are  only  possible,  if  it  be 
true  that  His  death  was  not  the  end  of  His  relationship 
to  us,  or  of  His  work  in  the  world,  but  was  only  a 
transition  from  one  stage  of  that  work  to  another. 
We  have  to  look  to  Christ,  the  '  faithful  Witness,'  the 
Witness  who  witnessed  when  He  died ;  but  we  have  to 
look  to  Him  that  is  risen  again  and  takes  His  place  at 
the  right  hand  of  God.  And  the  grace  and  peace  flow 
to  us  not  only  from  the  contemplation  of  the  past 
witness  of  the  Lord,  but  are  showered  upon  us  from 
the  open  hands  of  the  risen  and  living  Christ. 

In  still  another  way  do  grace  and  peace  reach  us, 
from  the  *  first  begotten  from  the  dead,'  inasmuch  as  in 
Him  and  in  His  resurrection-life  we  are  armed  for 
victory  over  that  foe  whom  He  has  conquered.  If  He 
be  the  first  born,  He  will  have  •  many  brethren.'    The 


V.  4]  GIFTS  OF  THE  CROWNED  CHRIST  123 

•first'  implies  a  second.  He  has  been  raised  from  the 
dead,  therefore  death  is  not  the  destruction  of  con- 
scious life.  He  has  been  raised  from  the  dead,  there- 
fore any  other  man  may  be.  Like  another  Samson, 
He  has  come  forth  from  the  prison-house,  with  the 
bars  and  gates  upon  His  mighty  shoulders,  and  has 
carried  them  away  up  there  to  the  hill-top  where  He 
is.  And  the  prison-house  door  stands  gaping  wide, 
and  none  so  weak  but  he  can  pass  out  through  the 
ever  open  portals.  Christ  has  risen,  and  therefore  if 
we  will  trust  Him  we  have  conquered  that  last  and 
grimmest  foe.  And  so  for  ourselves,  when  we  are 
trembling,  as  we  all  do  with  the  natural  shrinking  of 
flesh  from  the  thought  of  that  certain  death  ;  for  our- 
selves, in  our  hours  of  lonely  sorrow,  when  the  tears 
come  or  the  heart  is  numbed  with  pain ;  for  ourselves 
when  we  lay  ourselves  down  in  our  beds  to  die,  grace 
and  peace,  like  the  dove  that  fell  on  His  sacred  head 
as  it  rose  from  the  water  of  the  baptism — will  come 
down  from  His  hands  who  is  not  only  *  the  faithful 
Witness,'  but  the  '  first  begotten  from  the  dead.' 

III.  Lastly,  we  have  grace  and  peace  from  the  King 
of  kings. 

The  series  of  aspects  of  Christ's  work  here  is  ranged 
in  order  of  time,  in  so  far  as  the  second  follows  the 
first,  and  the  third  flows  from  both,  though  we  are  not 
to  suppose  that  our  Lord  has  ceased  to  be  the  faithful 
Witness  when  He  has  ascended  His  Sovereign  Throne. 
His  own  saying,  '  I  have  declared  Thy  name,  and  will 
declare  it,'  shows  us  that  His  witness  is  perpetual,  and 
carried  on  from  His  seat  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

He  is  the  'Prince  of  the  kings  of  the  earth,'  just 
because  He  is  *  the  faithful  Witness.'  That  is  to  say : 
— His  dominion  is  the  dominion  of  the  truth  ;    His 


124  REVELATION  [oh.i. 

dominion  is  a  kingdom  over  men's  wills  and  spirits. 
Does  He  rule  by  force  ?  No  !  Does  He  rule  by  outward 
means  ?  No  !  By  terror  ?  No !  but  because,  as  He 
said  to  the  astonished  Pilate,  He  came  *  to  bear  witness 
to  the  truth ' ;  therefore  is  He  the  King  not  of  the 
Jews  only  but  of  the  whole  world.  A  kingdom  over 
heart  and  conscience,  will  and  spirit,  is  the  kingdom 
which  Christ  has  founded,  and  His  rule  rests  upon  His 
witness. 

And  not  only  so,  He  is  •  the  Prince  of  the  kings  of  the 
earth '  because  in  that  witness  He  dies,  and  so  becomes 
a  'martyr'  to  the  truth — the  word  in  the  original  con- 
veying both  ideas.  That  is  to  say,  His  dominion  rests 
not  only  upon  truth.  That  would  be  a  dominion  grand 
as  compared  with  the  kingdom  of  this  world,  but  still 
cold.  His  dominion  rests  upon  love  and  sacrifice.  And 
so  His  Kingdom  is  a  kingdom  of  blessing  and  of  gentle- 
ness ;  and  He  is  crowned  with  the  crowns  of  the 
universe,  because  He  was  first  crowned  with  the  crown 
of  thorns.  His  first  regal  title  was  written  upon  His 
Cross,  and  from  the  Cross  His  Royalty  ever  flows.  He 
is  the  King  because  He  is  the  sacrifice. 

And  He  is  the  Prince  of  the  kings  of  the  earth 
because,  witnessing  and  slain,  He  has  risen  again ;  His 
resurrection  has  been  the  step  midway,  as  it  were, 
between  the  humiliation  of  earth  and  death,  and  the 
loftiness  of  the  Throne.  By  it  He  has  climbed  to  His 
place  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  He  is  King  and  Prince, 
then,  by  right  of  truth,  love,  sacrifice,  death,  resurrec- 
tion. 

And  King  to  what  end?  That  He  may  send  grace 
and  peace.  Is  there  no  peace  for  a  man's  heart  in 
feeling  that  the  Brother  that  loves  him  and  died  for 
him  rules  over  all  the  perplexities  of  life,  the  confusions 


V.4]  GIFTS  OF  THE  CROWNED  CHRIST  125 

of  Providence,  the  sorrows  of  a  world,  and  the  corrup- 
tions of  his  own  nature  ?  Is  it  not  enough  to  drive 
away  fears,  to  anodyne  cares,  to  disentangle  perplexi- 
ties, to  quiet  disturbances,  to  make  the  coward  brave, 
and  the  feeble  strong,  and  the  foolish  wise,  and  the 
querulous  patient,  to  think  that  my  Christ  is  king; 
and  that  the  hands  which  were  nailed  to  the  Cross 
wield  the  sceptre,  and  that  He  who  died  for  me  rules 
the  universe  and  rules  me? 

Oh,  brethren!  there  is  no  tranquillity  for  a  man 
anywhere  else  but  in  the  humble,  hearty  recognition 
of  that  Lord  as  his  Lord.  Crown  Him  with  your 
reverence,  with  your  loyal  obedience,  with  your  con- 
stant desires ;  crown  Him  with  your  love,  the  most 
precious  of  all  the  crowns  that  He  wears,  and  you  will 
find  that  grace  and  peace  come  to  you  from  Him. 

Such,  then,  is  the  vision  that  this  seer  in  Patmos  had 
of  his  Lord.  It  was  to  him  a  momentary  opening  of 
the  heavens,  which  showed  him  his  throned  Lord;  but 
the  fact  which  was  made  visible  to  his  inward  eye  for 
a  moment  is  an  eternal  fact.  To-day  as  then,  to-morrow 
as  to-day,  for  Asiatic  Greeks  and  for  modern  English- 
men, for  past  centuries,  for  the  present,  and  for  all  the 
future,  for  the  whole  world  for  ever,  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  only  witness  whose  voice  breaks  the  awful  silence 
and  tells  us  of  a  Father ;  the  only  Conqueror  of  Death 
who  makes  the  life  beyond  a  firm,  certain  fact;  the 
King  whose  dominion  it  is  life  to  obey.  We  all  need 
Him.  Your  hearts  have  wants  which  only  His  grace 
can  supply,  your  lives  have  troubles  which  only  His 
peace  can  still.  Sin  and  sorrow,  change  and"  trial, 
separation  and  death,  are  facts  in  every  man's  ex- 
perience. They  are  ranked  against  us  in  serried 
battalions.    You  can  conquer  them  all  if  you  will  seek 


126  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

shelter  and  strength  from  Him  who  has  died  for  you, 
and  lives  to  succour  and  to  save.  Trust  Himl  Let 
your  faith  grasp  the  past  fact  of  the  Cross  w^hose 
virtue  never  grows  old,  and  the  present  fact  of  the 
Throne  from  which  He  bends  down  with  hands  full  of 
grace ;  and  on  His  lips  the  tender  old  words :  *  Peace  I 
leave  with  you,  My  peace  give  I  unto  you  I ' 


CHRIST'S  PRESENT  LOVE  AND  PAST  LOOSING 
FROM  SINS 

'  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood.'— 
Rev.  i.  5. 

The  Revised  Version  rightly  makes  two  slight  but 
important  changes  in  this  verse,  both  of  which  are 
sustained  by  preponderating  authority.  For  '  loved '  it 
reads  '  loveth,'  and  for  '  washed '  it  reads  *  loosed ' ;  the 
whole  standing  *Unto  Him  that  loveth  us,  loosed  us 
from  our  sins  by  His  blood.'  Now  the  first  of  these 
changes  obviously  adds  much  to  the  force  and  richness 
of  the  representation,  for  it  substitutes  for  a  past  a 
present  and  timeless  love.  The  second  of  them,  though 
it  seems  greater,  is  really  smaller,  for  it  makes  no 
change  in  the  meaning,  but  only  in  the  figure  under 
which  the  meaning  is  represented.  If  we  read 
*  washed,'  the  metaphor  would  be  of  sin  as  a  stain ;  if 
we  read  '  loosed,'  the  metaphor  is  of  sin  as  a  *  chain.' 
Possibly  the  context  may  somewhat  favour  the  altera- 
tion, inasmuch  as  there  would  then  be  the  striking 
contrast  between  the  condition  of  captives  or  bonds- 
men, and  the  dignity  of  *  kings  and  priests  unto  God,' 
into  which  Jesus  brings  those  whom  He  has  freed  from 
the  bondage.  Taking,  then,  these  changes,  and  noting 
the  fact  that  our  text  is  the  beginning  of  a  doxology, 


V.6]  CHRIST'S  PRESENT  LOVE  127 

we  have  here  three  points,  the  present  love  of  Christ, 
the  great  past  act  which  is  its  outcome  and  proof,  and 
the  praise  which  should  answer  that  great  love. 

I.  We  have  here  that  great  thought  of  the  present 
love  of  Christ. 

The  words  seem  to  me  to  become  especially  beauti- 
ful, if  we  remember  that  they  come  from  the  lips  of 
him  whose  distinction  it  was  that  he  was  '  the  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved.'  It  is  as  if  he  had  said,  *  I  share 
my  privilege  with  you  all.  I  was  no  nearer  Him  than 
you  may  be.  Every  head  may  rest  on  the  breast 
where  mine  rested.  Having  the  sweet  remembrance 
of  that  early  love,  these  things  write  I  unto  you  that 
ye  also  may  have  fellowship  with  me  in  that  which 
was  my  great  distinction.  I,  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved,  speak  to  you  as  the  disciples  whom  Jesus  loves.' 

Mark  that  he  is  speaking  of  One  who  had  been  dead 
for  half  a  century,  and  that  he  is  speaking  to  people, 
none  of  whom  had  probably  ever  seen  Jesus  in  His 
lifetime,  and  most  of  whom  had  not  been  born  when 
He  died.  Yet  to  them  all  he  turns  with  that  profound 
and  mighty  present  tense,  and  says,  '  He  loveth  us.' 
He  was  speaking  to  all  generations,  and  telling  all  the 
tribes  of  men  of  a  love  which  is  in  active  operation 
towards  each  of  them,  not  only  at  the  moment  when 
John  spoke  to  Asiatic  Greeks,  but  at  the  moment  when 
we  Englishmen  read  his  words,  '  Christ  that  loveth  us.' 

Now  that  great  thought  suggests  two  things,  one  as  to 
the  permanence,  and  one  as  to  the  sweep  of  Christ's  love. 
With  regard  to  the  permanence,  we  have  here  the  reve- 
lation of  One  whose  relation  to  life  and  death  is  alto- 
gether unique.  For  though  we  must  believe  that  the 
dead  do  still  cherish  the  love  that  lighted  earth  for 
them,  we  cannot  suppose  that  their  love  embraces  those 


128  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

whom  on  earth  they  did  not  know,  or  that  for  those 
who  are  still  held  in  its  grasp  it  can  be  a  potence  in 
active  operation  to  bless  them  and  to  do  them  good. 
But  here  is  a  Man,  to  the  exercise  of  whose  love,  to  the 
clearness  of  whose  apprehension  and  knowledge,  to  the 
outgoing  of  whose  warm  affection,  the  active  energy 
of  that  affection  life  or  death  make  no  difference.  The 
cold  which  stays  the  flow  of  all  other  human  love,  like 
frost  laid  upon  the  running  streams  which  it  binds  in 
fetters,  has  no  power  over  the  flow  of  Christ's  love, 
which  rolls  on,  unfrozen  and  unaffected  by  it.  But 
not  only  does  Christ's  present  love  require  that  He 
should  be  lifted  above  death  as  it  affects  the  rest  of  us, 
but  it  also  demands  for  its  explanation  that  we  shall 
see  in  Him  true  Divinity.  For  this  'lov^eth'  is  the 
timeless  present  of  that  Divine  nature,  of  which  we 
cannot  properly  say  either  that  it  was  or  that  it  will 
be,  but  only  that  it  for  ever  is,  and  the  outgoings  of 
His  love  are  like  the  outgoings  of  that  Divine  energy 
of  which  we  cannot  properly  say  that  it  did  or  that  it 
will  do,  but  only  that  it  ever  does.  His  love,  if  I  might 
use  such  a  phrase,  is  lifted  above  all  tenses,  and  trans- 
cends even  the  bounds  of  grammar.  He  did  love.  He 
does  love.  He  will  love.  All  three  forms  of  speech 
must  be  combined  in  setting  forth  the  ever  present, 
because  timeless  and  eternal,  love  of  the  Incarnate 
Word. 

Then  let  me  remind  you  too  that  this  present  love  of 
Christ  is  undiminished  by  the  glory  to  which  He  is 
exalted.  We  find  clear  and  great  differences  between 
the  picture  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  four  gospels  and  the 
picture  of  Him  drawn  in  that  magnificent  vision  of 
this  chapter.  But  the  differences  are  surface,  and  the 
identity  is  deep-lying.    The  differences  affect  position 


V.5]  CHRIST'S  PRESENT  LOVE  129 

much  rather  than  nature,  and  as  we  look  upon  that 
revelation  which  was  given  to  the  seer  in  his  rocky 
Patmos,  and  with  him  'in  the  Spirit'  behold  'the 
things  that  are,'  we  carry  into  all  the  glory  the  thought 
•He  loveth  us' ;  and  the  breast  girded  with  the  golden 
girdle  is  as  loving  as  that  upon  which  John's  happy 
head  lay,  and  the  hand  that  holds  the  seven  stars  is  as 
tender  as  when  it  was  laid  on  little  children  in  blessing 
or  on  lepers  in  cleansing ;  or  as  when  it  held  up  the 
sinking  Apostle,  or  lifted  the  sick  from  their  couches, 
or  as  when  it  was  stretched  on  the  Cross  and  pierced 
with  the  nails  ;  and  the  face,  *  which  is  as  the  sun  shineth 
in  his  strength,'  is  as  gracious  as  when  it  beamed  in 
pity  upon  wanderers  and  sorrowful  ones,  and  drew  by 
its  beauty  and  its  sweetness  the  harlots  and  publicans 
to  His  pity.  The  exalted  Christ  loves  as  did  the  lowly 
Christ  on  earth. 

How  different  this  prosaic,  worried  present  would  be 
if  we  could  carry  with  us,  as  we  may  if  we  will,  into 
all  its  trivialities,  into  all  its  monotony,  into  all  its 
commonplace  routine,  into  all  its  little  annoyances 
and  great  sorrows,  that  one  lambent  thought  as  a 
source  of  light  and  strength  and  blessing,  '  He  loveth 
us.'  Ah!  brethren,  we  lose  tremendously  of  what  we 
might  all  possess,  because  we  think  so  of  'He  loved,' 
and  travel  back  to  the  Cross  for  its  proof,  and  think  so 
comparatively  seldom  '  He  loveth,'  and  feel  the  touch 
of  His  hand  on  our  hearts  for  its  token. 

But  here  we  have  not  only  the  present  and  per- 
manent love,  but  we  have  the  sweep  and  extent  of 
it.  'He  loveth  us.'  And  though  John  was  speaking 
primarily  about  a  little  handful  of  people  scattered 
through  some  of  the  seaboard  towns  of  Asia  Minor, 
the  principle  upon  which  he  could  make  the  assertion 

I 


130  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

in  regard  to  them  warrants  us  in  extending  the  asser- 
tion not  only  to  men  that  respond  to  the  love,  and 
believe  in  it,  but  right  away  over  all  the  generations 
and  all  the  successive  files  of  the  great  army  of 
humanity,  down  to  the  very  ends  of  time,  *  He  loveth 
us.' 

That  universality,  wonderful  as  it  is,  and  requiring 
for  its  basis  the  same  belief  in  Christ's  Divine  nature 
which  the  present  energy  of  His  love  requires,  has  to 
be  translated  by  each  of  us  into  an  individualising  love 
which  is  poured  upon  each  single  soul,  as  if  it  were  the 
sole  recipient  of  the  fulness  of  the  heart  of  Christ. 
When  we  extend  our  thoughts  or  our  sympathies  to  a 
crowd,  we  lose  the  individual.  We  generalise,  as  logi- 
cians say,  by  neglecting  the  particular  instances.  That 
is  to  say,  when  we  look  at  the  forest  we  do  not  see  the 
trees.  But  Jesus  Christ  sees  each  tree,  each  stem, 
each  branch,  each  leaf,  just  as  when  the  crowd  thronged 
Him  and  pressed  Him,  He  knew  when  the  tremulous 
finger,  wasted  and  shrunken  to  skin  and  bone,  was 
timidly  laid  on  the  hem  of  His  garment ;  as  there  was 
room  for  all  the  five  thousand  on  the  grass,  and  no 
man's  plenty  was  secured  at  the  expense  of  another 
man's  penury,  so  each  of  us  has  a  place  in  that  heart ; 
and  my  abundance  will  not  starve  you,  nor  your  feed- 
ing full  diminish  the  supplies  for  me.  Christ  loves  all, 
not  with  the  vague  general  philanthropy  with  which 
men  love  the  mass,  but  with  the  individualising  know- 
ledge and  special  direction  of  affection  towards  the  in- 
dividual which  demands  for  its  fulness  a  Divine  nature 
to  exercise  it.  And  so  each  of  us  may  have  our  own 
rainbow,  to  each  of  us  the  sunbeam  may  come  straight 
from  the  sun  and  strike  upon  our  eye  in  a  direct  line, 
to  each  of  us  the  whole  warmth  of  the  orb  may  be  con- 


V.6]  CHRIST'S  PRESENT  LOVE  131 

veycd,  and  each  of  us  may  say,  '  He  loved  me,  and  gave 
Himself  for  me.'  Is  that  your  conception  of  your 
relation  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  Christ's  to  you  ? 

II.  Notice  the  great  proof  and  outcome  of  this 
present  love.  Because  it  is  timeless  love,  and  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  distinction  of  past,  present,  and 
future,  John  lays  hold  of  a  past  act  as  the  manifesta- 
tion of  a  present  love.  If  we  would  understand  what 
that  love  is  which  is  offered  to  each  of  us  in  the 
present,  we  must  understand  what  is  meant  and  what 
is  involved  in  that  past  act  to  which  John  points  :  '  He 
loosed  us  from  our  sins  by  His  own  blood.'  Christ  is 
the  Emancipator,  and  the  instrument  by  which  He 
makes  us  free  is  *  His  own  blood.' 

Now  there  underlies  that  thought  the  sad  metaphor 
that  sin  is  captivity.  There  may  be  some  kind  of 
allusion  in  the  Apostle's  mind  to  the  deliverance  from 
Egyptian  bondage;  and  that  is  made  the  more  prob- 
able if  we  observe  that  the  next  clause,  'hath  made 
us  kings  and  priests  unto  God,*  points  back  to  the  great 
charter  of  Israel's  national  existence  which  was  given 
immediately  after  the  Exodus.  But,  be  that  as  it  may, 
the  notion  of  bondage  underlies  this  metaphor  of 
loosing  a  fetter.  If  we  would  be  honest  with  ourselves, 
in  our  account  of  our  own  inward  experiences,  that 
bondage  we  all  know.  There  is  the  bondage  of  sin  as 
guilt,  the  sense  of  responsibility,  the  feeling  that  we 
have  to  answer  for  what  we  have  done,  and  to  answer 
— as  I  believe  and  as  I  think  men's  consciences  for  the 
most  part  force  them  to  believe — not  only  here  but 
hereafter,  when  we  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ.  Guilt  is  a  chain.  And  there  is  the  bondage 
of  habit,  which  ties  and  holds  us  with  the  cords  of  our 
sins,  so  as  that,  slight  as  the  fetter  may  seem  at  first» 


132  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

it  has  an  awful  power  of  thickening  and  becoming 
heavier  and  more  pressing,  till  at  last  it  holds  a  man 
in  a  grip  that  he  cannot  get  away  from.  I  know  of 
nothing  in  human  life  more  mystically  awful  than  the 
possible  influence  of  habit.  And  you  cannot  break 
these  fetters  yourselves,  brethren,  any  more  than  a 
man  in  a  dungeon,  shackled  to  the  wall,  can  file  through 
his  handcuffs  and  anklets  with  a  pin  or  a  broken  pen- 
knife. You  can  do  a  great  deal,  but  you  cannot  deal 
with  the  past  fact  of  guilt,  and  you  can  only  very 
partially  deal  with  the  present  fact  of  tyranny  which 
the  evil  habit  exercises  on  you. 

'  He  loosed  us  from  our  sins  by  His  own  blood.'  This 
is  not  the  place  to  enter  upon  theological  speculations, 
but  I,  for  my  part,  believe  that,  although  I  may  not  get 
to  the  bottom  of  the  bottomless,  nor  speak  about  the 
Divine  nature  with  full  knowledge  of  all  that  it  is. 
Scripture  is  pledged  to  the  fact  that  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Sacrifice  for  the  world's  sin.  I  admit  that 
a  full  theory  is  not  within  reach,  but  I  do  not  admit 
that  therefore  we  are  to  falter  in  declaring  that 
Christ's  death  is  indispensable  in  order  that  a  man's 
sin  may  be  forgiven,  and  the  fetters  broken,  in  so  far 
as  guilt  and  condemnation  and  Divine  disapprobation 
are  concerned. 

But  that  is  only  one  side  of  the  truth.  The  other, 
and  in  some  aspects  a  far  more  important  one,  is  that 
that  same  blood  which  shed  delivers  them  that  trust  in 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  guilt  of  their  sin,  imparted  to 
men,  delivers  them  from  the  power  of  their  sin.  '  The 
blood  is  the  life,'  according  to  the  simple  physiology  of 
the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament.  When  we  read  in 
Scripture  that  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses  from 
all  sin,  as  I  believe  we  are  intended  to  understand  that 


V.6]  CHRIST'S  PRESENT  LOVE  138 

word,  the  impartation  of  Christ's  life  to  us  purifies  our 
nature,  and  makes  us,  too,  in  our  degree,  and  on  condi- 
tion of  our  own  activity,  and  gradually  and  successively 
free  from  all  evil.  So  as  regards  both  aspects  of  the 
thraldom  of  sin,  as  guilt  and  as  habit :  '  He  has  loosed 
us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood.' 

That  is  the  great  token  and  manifestation  of  His 
love.  If  we  do  not  believe  that,  how  else  can  we  have 
any  real  conviction  and  proof  of  anything  worth  calling 
love  as  being  in  the  heart  of  Jesus  Christ  to  any  of  us  ? 
To  me  it  seems  that  unless  a  man  accepts  that  great 
thought,  '  He  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me,'  and 
is  daily  working  in  my  nature  to  make  it  and  me  more 
like  Himself,  he  has  no  real  proof  that  Jesus  Christ  cares 
a  jot  for  him,  or  knows  anything  about  him.  But  I,  for 
my  part,  venture  to  say  that  looking  on  Christ  and  His 
past  as  this  text  does,  we  can  look  up  to  Christ  in  the 
present  as  the  seer  did,  and,  behold,  enthroned  by  the 
side  of  the  glory,  the  Man,  the  Incarnate  Word,  who 
loves  with  timeless  love  every  single  soul  of  man. 

III.  So,  lastly,  let  me  point  you  to  the  praise  which 
should  answer  this  present  love  and  emancipation. 

'Unto  Him,'  says  John,  'be' — or  is — 'glory  and 
dominion  for  ever  and  ever.'  That  present  love,  and 
that  great  past  act  which  is  its  vindication  and  mani- 
festation, are  the  true  glory  of  God.  For  His  glory 
lies,  not  in  attributes,  as  we  call  them,  that  distinguish 
Him  from  the  limitations  of  humanity,  such  as  Omni- 
science and  Omnipresence  and  Eternal  Being  and  the 
like ;  all  these  are  great,  but  they  are  not  the  greatest. 
The  divinest  thing  in  God  is  His  love,  and  the  true  glory 
is  the  glory  that  rays  out  from  Him  whom  we  behold 
'full  of  grace  and  truth,'  full  of  love,  and  dying  on 
the  Cross.    When  we  look  at  that  weak  man  there 


134.  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

yielding  to  the  last  infirmity  of  humanity,  and  yet  in 
yielding  to  it  manifesting  His  dominion  over  it,  there 
we  see  God  as  we  do  not  see  Him  anywhere  besides. 
To  Him  is  the  glory  for  His  love,  and  His  'loosing' 
manifest  the  glory,  and  from  His  love  and  His  loosing 
accrue  to  Him  glory  beyond  all  other  revenue  of  praise 
which  comes  to  Him  from  creative  and  sustaining  acts. 

•Unto  Him  be  dominion,'  for  His  rule  rests  on  His 
sacrifice  and  on  His  love.  The  crown  of  thorns  pre- 
pared for  the  '  many  crowns '  of  heaven,  the  sceptre  of 
reed  was  the  prophecy  of  the  sceptre  of  the  universe. 
The  Cross  was  the  footstool  of  His  Throne.  He  is 
King  of  men  because  He  has  loved  us  perfectly,  and 
given  everything  for  us. 

And  so,  brethren,  the  question  of  questions  for  each 
of  us  is.  Is  Jesus  Christ  my  Emancipator  ?  Do  I  see  in 
Him  He  that  looses  me  from  my  sins,  and  makes  me 
free  indeed,  because  the  Son  has  made  me  free  and  a 
son  ?  Do  I  render  to  Him  the  love  which  such  a  love 
requires  ?  Do  I  find  in  Him  my  ever-present  Lover 
and  Friend,  and  is  His  love  to  me  as  a  stimulus  for  all 
service,  an  amulet  against  every  temptation,  a  break- 
water in  all  storms,  a  light  in  every  darkness,  the 
pledge  of  a  future  heaven,  and  the  beginning  of  a 
heaven  even  upon  earth  ?  I  beseech  you,  recognise 
your  fetters,  and  do  not  say  *  we  were  never  in  bondage 
to  any  man.'  Recognise  your  Liberator,  put  your  trust 
in  Him  ;  and  then  you  will  be  able  to  join,  even  here 
on  earth,  and  more  perfectly  hereafter,  in  that  great 
storm  and  chorus  of  praise  which  is  in  heaven  and  on 
the  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  in  the 
sea,  and  all  that  are  in  them,  saying,  *  Blessing  and 
honour  and  glory  and  power  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth 
on  the  Throne  and  to  the  Lamb  for  ever  and  ever.' 


KINGS  AND  PRIESTS 

'He  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God. —Rev.  L  6L 

There  is  an  evident  reference  in  these  words  to  the 
original  charter  of  the  Jewish  nation,  which  ran,  'If 
ye  will  indeed  obey  My  voice  and  keep  My  covenant, 
then  shall  ye  be  to  Me  a  kingdom  of  priests.'  That 
reference  is  still  more  obvious  if  we  follow  the  reading 
of  our  text  in  the  Revised  Version,  which  runs, '  He 
made  us  to  be  a  kingdom,  to  be  priests.'  Now  it  is  un- 
questionable that,  in  the  original  passage,  Israel  is 
represented  as  being  God's  kingdom,  the  nation  over 
which  He  reigned  as  King.  But  in  John's  use  of  the 
expression  there  seems  to  be  a  slight  modification  of 
meaning,  as  is  obvious  in  the  parallel  passage  to  this, 
which  occurs  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  where  we  read 
in  addition,  '  They  shall  reign  with  Him  for  ever.'  That 
is  to  say,  in  our  text  we  should  rather  translate  the 
word  •  hingship '  than  •  kingcZow,'  for  it  means  rather 
the  Royal  dominion  of  the  Christian  community  than 
its  subjection  to  the  reign  of  God. 

So  the  two  dignities,  the  chief  in  the  ancient  world, 
which  as  a  rule  were  sedulously  kept  apart,  lest  their 
union  should  produce  a  grinding  despotism  from  which 
there  was  no  appeal,  are  united  in  the  person  of  the 
humblest  Christian,  and  that  not  merely  at  some 
distant  future  period  beyond  the  grave,  but  here  and 
now;  for  my  text  says,  not  '  will  make,'  but  *hath 
made.'  The  coronation  and  the  consecration  are  both 
past  acts,  they  are  the  sequel,  certain  to  follow  upon 
the  previous  act :  *  He  hath  loosed  us  from  our  sins  in 
His  own  blood.'  The  timeless  love  of  Christ,  of  which 
that  •  loosing '  was  the  manifestation  and  the  outcome, 


1S6 


136  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

is  not  content  with  emancipating  the  slaves ;  it  en- 
thrones and  hallo V7S  them.  '  He  lifts  the  beggar  from 
the  dunghill  to  set  him  among  princes.'  '  He  hath 
loosed  us  from  our  sins,'  He  hath  therein  made  us 
'  kings  and  priests  to  God.' 

I.  So,  then,  we  have  to  consider,  first,  the  Royalty  of 
the  Christian  life. 

Now  as  I  have  already  observed,  that  royalty  has  two 
aspects,  a  present  and  a  future,  and  therein  the  repre- 
sentation coincides  with  the  whole  strain  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  never  separates  the  present  from 
the  future  condition  of  Christian  people,  as  if  they 
were  altogether  unlike,  but  lays  far  more  emphasis 
upon  the  point  in  which  they  coincide  than  on  the 
points  in  which  they  differ,  and  represents  that  future 
as  being  but  the  completion  and  the  heightening  to  a 
more  lustrous  splendour,  of  that  which  characterises 
Christian  life  in  the  present.  So  there  is  a  present 
dominion,  notwithstanding  all  the  sorrows  and  limita- 
tions and  burdens  of  life ;  and  there  is  a  future  one, 
which  is  but  the  expansion  and  the  superlative  degree 
of  that  which  is  enjoined  in  the  present.  What,  then, 
is  the  present  royalty  of  the  men  that  have  been  loosed 
from  their  sins  ? 

Well,  I  think  that  the  true  kingship,  which  comes  as 
the  consequence  of  Christ's  emancipation  of  us  from 
the  guilt  and  power  of  sin,  is  dominion  over  ourselves. 
That  is  the  real  royalty,  to  which  every  man,  whatever 
his  position,  may  aspire,  and  may  exercise.  Our  very 
nature  shows  that  we  are  not,  if  I  might  so  say,  a 
republic  or  a  democracy,  but  a  monarchy,  for  there  are 
parts  of  every  one  of  us  that  are  manifestly  intended 
to  be  subjected  and  to  obey,  and  there  are  parts  that 
are  as  manifestly  intended  to  be  authoritative  and  to 


V.6]  KINGS  AND  PRIESTS  137 

command.  On  the  one  side  are  the  passions  and  the 
desires  that  inhere  in  our  fleshly  natures,  and  others, 
more  refined  and  sublimated  forms  of  the  same,  and  on 
the  other,  there  is  will,  reason,  conscience.  And  these, 
being  themselves  the  authoritative  and  commanding 
parts  of  our  nature,  observe  a  subordination  also.  For 
the  will  which  impels  all  the  rest  is  but  a  blind  giant 
unless  it  be  illumined  by  reason.  And  will  and 
reason  alike  have  to  bow  to  the  dictates  of  that 
conscience  which  is  the  vicegerent  of  God  in  every 
man. 

But  there  is  rebellion  in  the  monarchy,  as  we  all 
know,  a  revolt  that  spreads  widely.  And  there  is  no 
power  that  will  enable  my  will  to  dominate  my  baser 
part,  and  no  power  that  will  enthrone  my  reason  above 
my  will,  and  no  power  that  will  give  to  the  empty 
voice  of  conscience  force  to  enforce  its  decrees,  except 
the  power  of  Him  that  '  has  loosed  us  from  our  sins 
in  His  own  blood.'  When  we  bow  to  Him,  then,  and, 
as  I  believe  in  its  perfect  measure,  only  then,  shall  we 
realise  the  dominion  over  the  anarchic,  rebellious  self, 
which  God  means  every  man  to  exercise.  Christ,  and 
Christ  alone,  makes  us  fit  to  control  all  our  nature. 
And  He  does  it  by  pouring  into  us  His  own  Spirit, 
which  will  subdue,  by  strengthening  all  the  motives 
which  should  lead  men  to  obedience,  by  setting  before 
them  the  perfect  pattern  in  Himself,  and  by  the  com- 
munication of  His  own  life,  which  is  symbolised  by 
His  blood  cleansing  us  from  the  tyranny  under  which, 
we  have  been  held.  We  were  slaves,  He  makes  us  free, 
and  making  us  free  He  enthrones  us.  He  that  is  king 
over  himself  is  the  true  king. 

Again,  the  present  royalty  of  the  Christian  man  is 
found  in  his  sovereignty  over  the  world.    He  commands 


138  REVELATION  [ch.l 

the  world  who  despises  it.  He  is  lord  of  material 
things  who  bends  them  to  the  highest  use,  the  develop- 
ment of  his  own  nature,  and  the  formation  in  him  of  a 
God-pleasing  and  Christlike  character.  He  is  king  of 
the  material  who  uses  it  as  men  use  the  leaping-bars 
and  other  apparatus  in  a  gymnasium,  for  the  strength- 
ening of  the  frame,  and  the  bringing  out  of  the  muscles. 
He  is  the  king  of  the  world  to  whom  it  is  all  a  mirror 
that  shows  God,  a  ladder  by  which  we  can  climb  to 
Him.  And  this  domination  over  things  visible  and 
material  is  possible  to  us  in  its  superlative  degree  only 
in  the  measure  in  which  we  are  united  by  faith  and 
obedience  to  Him  who  declared,  with  almost  His  dying 
breath,  *  I  have  overcome  the  world,'  and  bade  us 
therefore  *  be  of  good  cheer.'  '  This  is  the  victory  that 
overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith,'  and  He  is  the 
master  of  all  who  has  submitted  himself  to  the 
monarchy  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  so  the  royalty  which 
begins  with  ruling  my  own  nature  goes  on  to  be  master 
of  all  things  around  me,  according  to  that  great  say- 
ing, the  depth  of  which  can  be  realised  only  by  ex- 
perience, •  All  things  are  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ's.' 

There  is  another  department  in  which  the  same 
kingship  is  at  present  capable  of  being  exercised  by  us 
all,  and  that  is  that  we  may  become,  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  independent  of  men,  and  lords  over  them,  in 
the  sense  that  we  shall  take  no  orders  from  them,  nor 
hang  upon  their  approbation  or  disapprobation,  nor 
depend  upon  their  love  for  our  joy,  nor  be  frightened 
or  bewildered  by  their  hate,  but  shall  be  able  to  say, 
'  We  are  the  servants  of  Christ,  therefore  we  are  free 
from  men.'  The  King's  servant  is  everybody  else's 
master.  In  the  measure  in  which  we  hold  ourselves  in 
close  union  with  that  Saviour  we  are  set  free  from  all 


T.6]  KINGS  AND  PRIESTS  189 

selfish  dependence  on,  and  regard  to,  the  judgments  of 
perishable  and  fallible  creatures  like  ourselves. 

But  the  passage  to  which  I  have  already  referred  as 
determining  the  precise  meaning  of  the  ambiguous 
expression  in  my  text  goes  a  little  further.  It  not  only 
speaks  of  being  kings  and  priests  here  and  now,  but  it 
adds  they  shall  •  reign  with  Him,'  and  so  points  us 
onward  to  a  dim  future,  in  which  all  that  is  tendency 
here,  and  an  imperfect  kingship,  shall  be  perfectly 
realised  hereafter.  I  do  not  dwell  upon  that,  for  we 
see  that  future  but  *  through  a  glass  darkly  * ;  only  I 
remind  you  of  such  sayings  as  *  have  thou  authority 
over  ten  cities,'  and  the  other  phrase  in  one  of  the 
letters  to  the  seven  churches,  in  which  '  authority  over 
the  nations '  and  *  ruling  them  with  a  rod  of  iron '  is 
promised  to  Christ's  servants.  These  are  promises  as 
dim  as  they  are  certain,  but  they,  at  least,  teach  us 
that  they  who  here,  in  lowly  dependence  on  the  King 
of  kings,  have  bowed  themselves  to  Him,  and,  emanci- 
pated by  Him,  have  been  made  to  share  in  some  measure 
in  His  royalty  here,  shall  hereafter,  according  to  the 
depth  of  His  own  wonderful  promise,  '  sit  with  Him  on 
His  Throne,  as  He  also  hath  sat  down  with  the  Father 
on  His  Throne.' 

For  indeed  this  kingship  of  all  Christ's  children,  like 
the  priesthood  with  which  it  is  associated  in  my  text, 
is  but  one  case  of  the  general  principle  that,  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  we  are  so  united  with  Him  as  that  where 
He  is,  and  what  He  is,  there  and  that  *  we  shall  be 
also.'  He  has  become  like  us  that  we  might  become  like 
Him.  He  has  taken  part  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
which  the  children  are  partakers,  that  they  might  take 
part  of  the  Spirit  of  which  He  is  the  Lord.  He,  the 
Son,  has  become  the  Son  of  Man  that  sons  of  men  might 


140  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

in  Him  become  the  sons  of  God.  The  branches  partake 
of  the  '  fatness '  of  the  vine ;  and  the  King  who  is 
Priest  makes  all  to  trust  Him,  not  only  sons  but  kings 
through  Himself. 

II.  We  have  here  the  priesthood  of  the  Christian  life. 

Now  that  idea  is  but  a  symbolical  way  of  putting 
some  very  great  and  wondrous  thoughts,  for  what  are 
the  elements  that  go  to  make  up  the  idea  of  a  priest. 

First,  direct  access  to  God,  and  that  is  the  prerogative 
of  every  Christian.  All  of  us,  each  of  us,  may  pass 
into  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  and  stand  there 
with  happy  hearts,  unabashed  and  unafraid,  beneath 
the  very  blaze  of  the  light  of  the  Shekinah.  And  we 
can  do  that,  because  Jesus  Christ  has  come  to  us  with 
these  words  upon  His  lips,  '  I  am  the  Way ;  no  man 
cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  Me.'  The  path  into  that 
Divine  Presence  is  for  every  sinful  soul  blocked  by  an 
immense  black  rock,  its  own  transgressions;  but  He 
has  blasted  away  the  rock,  and  the  path  is  patent  for 
all  our  feet.  By  His  death  we  have  the  way  made  open 
into  the  holiest  of  all.  And  so  we  can  come,  come  with 
lowly  hearts,  come  with  childlike  confidence,  come  with 
the  whole  burden  of  our  weaknesses  and  wants  and 
woes,  and  can  spread  them  all  before  Him,  and  nestle 
to  the  great  heart  of  God  the  Father  Himself.  We  are 
priests  to  God,  and  our  prerogative  is  to  pass  within 
the  veil  by  the  new  and  living  Way  which  Christ  is 
for  us. 

Again,  another  idea  in  the  conception  of  the  priest 
is  that  he  must  have  somewhat  to  offer ;  and  we 
Christian  people  are  in  that  sense  priests.  Christ  has 
offered  the  '  one  Sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever,'  and  there 
is  no  addition  to  that  possible  or  requisite.  But  after 
the  offering   of  the    expiatory  sacrifice,  the  ancient 


V.  6]  KINGS  AND  PRIESTS  141 

Ritual  taught  us  a  deep  truth  when  it  appointed  that 
following  it  there  should  be  the  sacrifice  of  thanks- 
giving. And  these  are  what  we  are  to  bring.  You 
remember  the  words,  *  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the 
mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present ' — and  that  word  is  the 
technical  on©  for  the  offering  of  sacrifice — '  your  bodies 
a  living  sacrifice,  acceptable  unto  God.'  You  remember 
Peter's  use  of  this  same  expression,  '  Yo  are  a  royal 
priesthood,'  and  his  description  of  their  function  to 
offer  up  spiritual  '  sacrifices.'  You  remember  the  other 
words  of  the  great  sacerdotal  book  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  claims  for 
Christians  all  that  seemed  to  be  disappearing  with  the 
dying  Jewish  economy,  and  says,  '  By  Him,  therefore, 
let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise  unto  God  .  .  .  that 
is  the  fruit  of  our  lips,  giving  thanks  to  His  Name,  and 
to  do  good,  and  to  communicate  forget  not,  for  with 
such  sacrifices  God  is  well-pleased.'  So  the  sacrifice  of 
myself,  moved  by  the  mercies  of  God  as  a  great  thank- 
offering,  and  in  detail  the  sacrifice  of  praise,  of  good 
gifts  and  good  deeds,  and  a  life  devoted  to  Him,  these 
are  the  sacrifices  which  we  have  to  bring. 

I  need  not  remind  you  of  yet  another  aspect  in  which 
the  sacrificial  idea  inheres  in  the  very  notion  of  the 
Christian  life,  and  that  is  not  only  access  to  God,  and 
the  offering  of  sacrifice,  but  mediation  with  man.  For 
the  function  is  laid  upon  all  Christian  people  by  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  that  they  should  represent  God  and 
Him  in  the  world,  and  beseech  men,  in  Christ's  stead, 
to  be  reconciled  to  God.  And  so  the  priesthood  and  the 
kingship  both  belong  to  the  ideal  of  the  Christian  life. 

III.  In  the  last  place,  just  a  word  or  two  as  to  the 
practical  conclusions  from  this  idea. 

The  first  of  them  is  one  on  which  I  touch  very  lightly, 


142  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

but  which  I  cannot  well  omit,  and  that  is  the  bearing 
of  this  thought  on  the  relations  of  the  members  of  the 
Christian  community  to  one  another.  The  New  Testa- 
ment knows  of  two  kinds  of  priesthood,  and  no  third. 
It  knows  of  Christ  as  the  High  Priest  who,  by  His 
great  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  has  made  all 
other  expiation  antiquated  and  impertinent,  and  has 
swept  away  the  whole  fabric  of  ceremonial  and  sacri- 
ficial worship  ;  and  it  knows  of  the  derived  priesthood 
which  belongs  to  every  member  of  Christ's  Church. 
But  it  stops  there ;  and  there  is  not  a  word  in  the  New 
Testament  which  warrants  any  single  member  of  that 
universal  priesthood  monopolising  the  title  to  himself, 
and  so  separating  himself  from  the  community  of  his 
brethren.  I  do  not  wish  to  elaborate  that  point,  or  to 
bring  any  mere  controversial  elements  into  my  sermon, 
but  I  am  bound  to  say  that  if  that  name  of  priest  be 
given  to  a  class,  you  elevate  the  class  and  you  degrade 
the  mass  of  believers.  You  take  away  from  the  com- 
munity what  you  concentrate  on  the  individual.  And 
historically  it  has  always  been  the  case  that  wherever 
the  name  of  priest  has  been  allotted  to  the  officials,  the 
ministers  of  the  Church,  there  the  priesthood  of  the 
community  has  tended  to  be  forgotten. 

I  do  not  dwell  upon  the  other  great  error  which  goes 
along  with  that  name  as  applied  to  an  officer  in  any 
Christian  community.  But  a  priest  must  have  a 
sacrifice,  and  you  cannot  sustain  the  sacerdotal  idea 
except  by  the  help  of  the  sacramentarian  idea  which, 
I  venture  to  say,  travesties  the  simple  memorial  rite 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  into  what  it  is  called  in  Roman 
Catholic  phraseology, '  the  tremendous  sacrifice.* 

Brethren,  the  hand  of  the  priest  paralyses  the  life 
of  the  Church ;  and  politically,  intellectually,  socially, 


T.6]  KINGS  AND  PRIESTS  148 

and  above  all  religiously,  it  blights  whatsoever  it 
touches.  You  free  Churchmen  have  laid  upon  you 
this  day  the  imperative  duty  of  witnessing  for  the  two 
things,  the  sole  priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
universal  priesthood  of  all  His  people. 

Let  me  say  again,  these  thoughts  bear  upon  our  in- 
dividual duty.  It  is  idle,  as  some  of  us  are  too  apt  to  do, 
to  use  them  as  a  weapon  to  fight  ecclesiastical  assump- 
tions with,  unless  they  regulate  our  own  lives.  Be 
what  you  are  is  what  I  would  say  to  all  Christian  men. 
You  are  a  king;  see  that  you  rule  yourself  and  the 
world.  You  are  a  priest ;  see  that  the  path  into  the 
Temple  is  worn  by  your  continual  feet.  See  that  you 
offer  yourselves  sacrifices  to  God  in  the  daily  work  and 
self-surrender  of  life.  See  that  you  mediate  between 
God  and  man,  in  such  brotherly  mediation  as  is  possible 
to  us. 

Above  all,  dear  friends,  let  us  all  begin  where  Christ 
begins,  where  my  text  begins,  and  go  to  Him  to  have 
ourselves  '  loosed  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood.' 
Then  the  king's  diadem  and  the  priest's  mitre  will  meet 
on  our  happy  heads.  In  plain  English,  if  we  want  to 
govern  ourselves  and  the  world,  we  must  let  Christ 
govern  us,  and  then  all  things  will  be  our  servants. 
If  we  would  draw  near  to  God — and  to  be  distant  from 
Him  is  misery;  and  if  we  would  offer  to  Him  the 
sacrifices — to  refrain  from  offering  which  is  sin  and 
sorrow — we  must  begin  with  going  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
trusting  in  Him  as  our  Redeemer  from  sin.  And  then, 
so  trusting.  He  will  give  us  here  and  now,  amid  the 
sorrows  and  imperfections  of  life,  and  more  perfectly 
amid  the  glories  and  unknown  advances  in  power  and 
beauty  in  the  heavens,  a  share  in  His  Royalty  and  His 
unchangeable  Priesthood. 


THE  KING  OF  GLORY  AND  LORD  OF  THE 
CHURCHES 

'  I  John,  who  also  am  your  brother,  and  companion  in  tribulation,  and  in  the 
kingdom  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ,  was  in  the  isle  that,  is  called  Patmos,  for 
the  word  of  God,  and  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ.  10.  I  was  in  the  Spirit  on 
the  Lord's  day,  and  heard  behind  me  a  great  voice,  as  of  a  trumpet,  11.  Saying,  I 
am  Alpha  and  Oraega,  the  first  and  the  last :  and.  What  thou  seest,  write  in  a 
book,  and  send  it  unto  the  seven  churches  which  are  in  Asia ;  unto  Ephesus,  and 
unto  Smyrna,  and  unto  Pergamos,  and  unto  Thyatira,  and  unto  Sardis,  and  unto 
Philadelphia,  and  unto  Laodicea.  12.  And  I  turned  to  see  the  voice  that  spake 
with  me.  And  being  turned,  I  saw  seven  golden  candlesticks ;  13.  And  in  the 
midst  of  the  seven  candlesticks  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  man,  clolhed  with  a 
garment  down  to  the  foot,  and  girt  about  the  paps  with  a  golden  girdle.  U.  His 
head  and  His  hairs  were  white  like  wool,  as  white  as  snow ;  and  His  eyes  were 
as  a  flame  of  fire ;  15.  And  His  feet  like  unto  fine  brass,  as  if  they  burned  in  a 
furnace ;  and  His  voice  as  the  sound  of  many  waters.  16.  And  He  had  in  His  right 
hand  seven  stars  :  and  out  of  His  mouth  went  a  sharp  two-edged  sword :  and  His 
countenance  was  as  the  sun  shineth  in  his  strength.  17.  And  when  I  saw  Him,  I 
fell  at  His  feet  as  dead.  And  He  laid  His  right  hand  upon  me,  saying  unto  me.  Fear 
not;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last:  18.  I  am  He  that  liveLh,  and  was  dead;  and, 
behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore.  Amen ;  and  have  the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death. 
19.  Write  the  things  which  them  hast  seen,  and  the  things  which  are,  and  the 
things  which  shall  be  hereafter;  20.  The  mystery  of  the  seven  stars  which  thou 
sawest  in  My  right  hand,  and  the  seven  golden  candlesticks.  The  seven  stars  are 
the  angels  of  the  seven  churches :  and  the  seven  candlesticks  which  thou  sawest 
are  the  seven  churches.'— Rev.  i.  9-20. 

In  this  passage  we  have  the  seer  and  his  commission 
(vs.  9-11) ;  the  vision  of  the  glorified  Christ  (vs.  12-16) ; 
His  words  of  comfort,  self-revelation,  and  command 
(vs.  17-20). 

I.  The  writer  does  not  call  himself  an  apostle,  but  a 
brother  and  sharer  in  the  common  good  of  Christians. 
He  does  not  speak  as  an  apostle,  whose  function  was 
to  witness  to  the  past  earthly  history  of  the  Lord,  but 
as  a  prophet,  whose  message  was  as  to  the  future. 

The  true  rendering  of  verse  9  (R.V.)  brings  all 
three  words,  'tribulation,'  'kingdom,'  and  'patience' 
into  the  same  relation  to  'in  Jesus.'  Sharing  in  afflic- 
tions which  flow  from  union  to  Him  is  the  condition 
of  partaking  in  His  kingdom ;  and  tribulation  leads  to 
the  throne,  when  it  is  borne  with  the  brave  patience 


vs.  9-20]  THE  KING  OF  GLORY  145 

which  not  only  endures,  but,  in  spite  of  sorrows,  goes 
right  onwards,  and  which  is  ours  if  we  are  in  Christ. 

Commentators  tell  us  that  John  was  banished  to 
Patmos,  an  insignificant  rock  off  the  Asiatic  coast, 
under  Domitian,  and  returned  to  Ephesus  in  the  reign 
of  Nerva  (a.d.  96).  No  wonder  that  all  through  the 
book  we  hear  the  sound  of  the  sea !  It  was  common 
for  the  Romans  to  dispose  of  criminals  in  that  fashion, 
and,  clearly,  John  was  shut  up  in  Patmos  as  a  criminal. 
•For  the  word  of  God,  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus,' 
cannot  fairly  bear  any  other  meaning  than  that  he 
was  sent  there  as  punishment  for  bearing  witness  to 
Jesus.  Observe  the  use  of  '  witness '  or  testimony,  as 
connecting  the  Apocalypse  with  the  Gospel  and  Epistles 
of  John. 

In  his  rocky  solitude  the  Apostle  was  *  in  the  Spirit,' 
— by  which  is,  of  course,  not  meant  the  condition  in 
which  every  Christian  should  ever  be,  but  such  a  state 
of  elevated  consciousness  and  communion  as  Paul  was 
in  when  he  was  caught  up  to  the  heavens.  No  doubt 
John  had  been  meditating  on  the  unforgotten  events 
of  that  long-past  day  of  resurrection,  which  he  was 
observing  in  his  islet  by  solitary  worship,  as  he  had 
often  observed  it  with  his  brethren  in  Ephesus;  and 
his  devout  thoughts  made  him  the  more  capable  of 
supernatural  communications.  Whether  the  name  of 
the  first  day  of  the  week  as  *  the  Lord's  Day '  originated 
with  this  passage,  or  had  already  become  common,  is 
uncertain.  But,  at  all  events,  it  was  plainly  regarded 
as  the  day  for  Christian  worship.  Solitary  souls,  far 
away  from  the  gatherings  of  Christ's  people,  may  still 
draw  near  to  Him  ;  and  if  they  turn  thought  and  love 
towards  Him,  they  will  be  lifted  above  this  gross  earth, 
and  hear  that  great  voice  speaking  to  them,  which 

K 


146  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

rose  above  the  dash  of  waves,  and  thrilled  the  inward 
ear  of  the  lonely  exile.  That  voice,  penetrating  and 
clear  like  a  trumpet,  gave  him  his  charge,  and  woke 
his  expectation  of  visions  to  follow. 

We  cannot  enter  on  any  consideration  of  the  churches 
enumerated,  or  the  reasons  for  their  selection.  Suffice 
it  to  note  that  their  number  suggests  their  representa- 
tive character,  and  that  what  is  said  to  them  is  meant 
for  all  churches  in  all  ages. 

11.  The  fuller  consideration  of  the  emblem  of  the 
candlesticks  will  come  presently,  but  we  have  reverently 
to  gaze  upon  the  glorious  figure  which  flashed  on  John's 
sight  as  he  turned  to  see  who  spoke  to  him  there  in  his 
loneliness.  His  first  glimpse  told  him  that  it  was  *  one 
like  to  the  Son  of  man ' ;  for  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed 
that  the  absence  of  the  definite  article  in  the  Greek 
obliges  us  to  think  that  all  that  John  meant  to  say  was 
that  the  form  was  manlike.  Surely  it  was  a  more 
blessed  resemblance  than  that  vague  one  which  struck 
on  his  heart.  It  was  He  Himself  '  with  His  human  air,' 
standing  there  in  the  blaze  of  celestial  light.  What  a 
rush  of  memories,  what  a  rapture  of  awe  and  surprise 
would  flood  his  soul,  as  that  truth  broke  on  him  !  The 
differences  between  the  form  seen  and  that  remembered 
were  startling,  indeed,  but  likeness  persisted  through 
them  all.  Nor  is  it  inexplicable  that,  when  he  had 
taken  in  all  the  features  of  the  vision,  he  should  have 
fallen  as  one  dead ;  for  the  truest  love  would  feel  awe 
at  the  reappearance  of  the  dearest  invested  with 
heavenly  radiance. 

The  elements  of  the  description  are  symbolical,  and, 
in  most  instances,  drawn  from  the  Old  Testament. 
The  long  robe,  girdled  high  up  with  a  golden  girdle, 
seems  to  express  at  once  kingly  and  priestly  dignity. 


V8.  9-20]  THE  KING  OF  GLORY  147 

Girded  loins  meant  work.  This  girdled  breast  meant 
royal  repose  and  priestly  calm.  The  whiteness  of  the 
hair  (comp.  Dan.  vii.  9)  may  indicate,  as  in  Daniel,  length 
of  days ;  but  more  probably  it  expresses  *  the  trans- 
figuration in  light  of  the  glorified  person  of  the 
Redeemer '  (Trench).  The  flaming  eyes  are  the  symbol 
of  His  all-seeing  wrath  against  evil,  and  the  feet  of 
burning  brass  symbolise  the  exalted  Christ's  power  to 
tread  down  His  enemies  and  consume  them.  His  voice 
was  as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  like  the  billows  that 
broke  on  Patmos,  whereby  is  symbolised  the  majesty 
of  His  utterance  of  power,  whether  for  rebuke  or 
encouragement,  but  mainly  for  the  former. 

Flashing  in  His  hand  were  seven  stars.  The  seer 
does  not  stop  to  tell  us  how  they  were  disposed  there, 
nor  how  one  hand  could  grasp  them  all ;  but  that  right 
hand  can  and  does.  What  this  point  of  the  vision 
means  we  shall  see  presently. 

The  terrible  power  of  the  exalted  Christ's  word  to 
destroy  His  foes  is  expressed  by  that  symbol  of  the 
two-edged  sword  from  His  mouth,  which,  like  so  many 
prophetic  symbols,  is  grotesque  if  pictured,  but  sublime 
when  spoken.  The  face  blazed  with  dazzling  bright- 
ness unbearable  as  the  splendours  of  that  southern  sun 
which  poured  its  rays  on  the  flashing  waters  round 
John's  rocky  prison. 

Is  this  tremendous  figure  like  the  Christ  on  whose 
bosom  John  had  leaned  ?  Yes  ;  for  one  chief  purpose 
of  this  book  is  to  make  us  feel  that  the  exalted  Jesus 
is  the  same  in  all  essentials  as  the  lowly  Jesus.  The 
heart  that  beats  beneath  the  golden  girdle  is  the  same 
that  melted  with  pity  and  overflowed  with  love  here. 
The  hands  that  bear  the  seven  stars  are  those  that 
were  pierced  with  nails.    The  eyes  that  flash  fire  are 


148  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

those  that  dropped  tears  at  a  grave  and  over  Jerusa- 
lem. The  lips  from  which  issues  the  sharp  sword  are 
the  same  which  said,  *I  will  give  you  rest.'  He  has 
carried  all  His  love,  His  gentleness,  His  sympathy,  into 
the  blaze  of  Deity,  and  in  His  glory  is  still  our  brother. 

III.  His  gracious  words  to  John  tell  us  this  and 
more.  Soothingly  He  laid  the  hand  with  the  stars  in 
it  on  the  terrified  Apostle,  and  gentle  words,  which  he 
had  heard  Him  say  many  a  time  on  earth,  came  sooth- 
ingly from  the  mouth  from  which  the  sword  pro- 
ceeded. How  the  calming  graciousness  rises  into 
majesty!  *I  am  the  first  and  the  last.'  That  is  a 
Divine  prerogative  (Isa.  xliv.  6).  The  glorified  Christ 
claims  to  have  been  before  all  creatures,  and  to  be  the 
end  to  which  all  tend. 

Verse  18  should  be  more  closely  connected  with 
the  preceding  than  in  Authorised  Version.  The  sen- 
tence runs  on  unbroken,  *  and  the  Living  one,'  which  is 
equivalent  to  the  claim  to  possess  life  in  Himself 
(John  V.  26),  on  which  follows  in  majestic  continuity, 
*  and  I  became  dead ' — pointing  to  the  mystery  of  the 
Lord  of  life  entering  into  the  conditions  of  humanity, 
and  stooping  to  taste  of  death — 'and,  behold,  I  am 
alive  for  evermore ' — the  transient  eclipse  of  the  grave 
is  followed  by  glorious  life  for  ever — •  and  I  have  the 
keys  of  death  and  of  Hades ' — having  authority  over 
that  dark  prison-house,  and  opening  and  shutting  its 
gates  as  I  will. 

Mark  how,  in  these  solemn  words,  the  threefold  state 
of  the  eternal  Word  is  set  forth,  in  His  pre-incarnate 
fulness  of  Divine  life,  in  His  submission  to  death,  in  His 
resurrection,  and  in  His  ascended  glory,  as  Lord  of 
life  and  death,  and  of  all  worlds.  Does  our  faith  grasp 
all  these?    We  shall  never  understand  His  life  and 


vs.  9-20]  THE  KING  OF  GLORY  149 

death  on  earth,  unless  we  see  before  them  the  eternal 
dwelling  of  the  Word  with  God,  and  after  them 
the  exaltation  of  His  manhood  to  the  throne  of  the 
universe. 

The  charge  to  the  Apostle,  which  follows  on  this 
transcendent  revelation,  has  two  parts— the  command 
to  write  his  visions,  and  the  explanation  of  the  symbols 
of  the  stars  and  the  candlesticks.  As  to  the  former,  we 
need  only  note  that  it  extends  to  the  whole  book,  and 
that  the  three  divisions  of  'what  thou  seest,'  *the 
things  which  are,'  and  '  the  things  which  shall  be  here- 
after,' may  refer,  respectively,  to  the  vision  in  this 
chapter,  the  letters  to  the  seven  churches,  and  the  sub- 
sequent prophetic  part  of  the  book. 

As  to  the  explanation  of  the  symbols,  stars  are  always, 
in  Scripture,  emblems  of  authority,  and  here  they  are 
clearly  so.  But  there  is  great  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  meaning  of  the  '  angels,'  which  are  variously  taken 
as  being  guardian  angels  of  each  church,  or  the  presid- 
ing officers  of  these,  or  ideal  figures  representing  each 
church  in  its  collective  aspect.  It  is  impossible  to 
enter  on  the  discussion  of  these  views  here,  and  we  can 
only  say  that,  in  our  judgment,  the  opinion  that  the 
angels  are  the  bishops  of  the  churches  is  the  most 
probable.  If  so,  the  fact  that  they  are  addressed  as 
representing  the  churches,  responsible  for  and  sharing 
in  their  spiritual  condition,  suggests  very  solemn 
thoughts  as  to  the  weight  laid  on  every  one  who 
sustains  an  analogous  position,  and  the  inseparable 
connection  between  the  spiritual  condition  of  pastor 
and  people. 

The  seven  candlesticks  are  the  seven  churches.  The 
formal  unity  of  the  ancient  church,  represented  by  the 
one  candlestick  with  its  seven  branches,  is  exchanged 


150  REVELATION  [ch.l 

for  the  real  unity  which  arises  from  the  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  midst.  The  old  candlestick  is  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  unity  of  the 
Church  does  not  depend  on  compression  into  one  or- 
ganisation, but  on  all  its  parts  being  clustered  around 
Jesus. 

The  emblem  of  the  candlestick,  or  lamp-holder,  may 
suggest  lessons  as  to  the  Church's  function.  Each 
church  should  be  light.  That  light  must  be  derived. 
There  is  only  one  unkindled  and  unfed  light — that  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Of  the  rest  of  us  it  has  to  be  said,  *  He 
was  not  that  Light,  but  was  sent  to  bear  witness  of 
that  Light.'  Each  church  should  be,  as  it  were,  a 
clustered  light,  like  those  rings  of  iron,  pierced  with 
many  little  holes,  from  each  of  which  a  tiny  jet  of  gas 
comes,  which,  running  all  together,  make  one  steady 
lustre.  So  we  should  each  be  content  to  blend  our 
little  twinkle  in  the  comimon  light. 


THE  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE 

•I  John,  your  brother,  and  partaker  with  you  in  the  tribulation  and  kingdom 
and  patience  which  are  in  Jesus.'— Rev.  i.  9  (R.V.). 

So  does  the  Apostle  introduce  himself  to  his  readers ; 
with  no  word  of  pre-eminence  or  of  apostolic  author- 
ity, but  with  the  simple  claim  to  share  with  them  in 
their  Christian  heritage.  And  this  is  the  same  man 
who,  at  an  earlier  stage  of  his  Christian  life,  desired 
that  he  and  his  brother  might '  sit  on  Thy  right  hand 
and  on  Thy  left  in  Thy  Kingdom.'  What  a  change  had 
passed  over  him  I  What  was  it  that  out  of  such  timber 
made  such  a  polished  shaft  ?  I  think  there  is  only  one 
answer — the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  gift 
of  God's  good  Spirit  that  came  after  it. 


7  9]  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE  151 

It  almost  looks  as  if  John  was  thinking  ahout  his 
old  ambitious  wish,  and  our  Lord's  answer  to  it,  when 
he  wrote  these  words ;  for  the  very  gist  of  our  Lord's 
teaching  to  him  on  that  memorable  occasion  is  repro- 
duced in  compressed  form  in  my  text.  He  had  been 
taught  that  fellowship  in  Christ's  sufferings  must  go 
before  participation  in  His  throne ;  and  so  here  he  puts 
tribulation  before  the  kingdom.  He  had  been  taught, 
in  answer  to  his  foolish  request,  that  pre-eminence  was 
not  the  first  thing  to  think  of,  but  service ;  and  that 
the  only  principle  according  to  which  rank  was  deter- 
mined in  that  kingdom  was  service.  So  here  he  says 
nothing  about  dignity,  but  calls  himself  simply  a 
brother  and  companion.  He  humbly  suppresses  his 
apostolic  authority,  and  takes  his  place,  not  by  the 
side  of  the  throne,  apart  from  others,  but  down  among 
them. 

Now  the  Revised  Version  is  distinctly  an  improved 
version  in  its    rendering  of   these  words.     It  reads 

*  partaker  with  you,'  instead  of  'companion,'  and  so 
emphasises  the  notion  of  participation.  It  reads,  *in 
the  tribulation  and  kingdom  and  patience,'  instead  of 

*  in  tribulation  and  in  the  kingdom  and  patience ' ;  and 
so,  as  it  were,  brackets  all  the  three  nouns  together 
under  one  preposition  and  one  definite  article,  and 
thus  shows  more  closely  their  connection.  And  instead 
of  '  in  the  kingdom  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ,'  it 
reads,  '  which  are  in  Jesus  Christ,'  and  so  shows  that 
the  predicate,  *in  Jesus  Christ,*  extends  to  all  the 
three— the  'tribulation,'  the  'kingdom,'  and  the 
'patience,'  and  not  only  to  the  last  of  the  three,  as 
would  be  suggested  to  an  ordinary  reader  of  our 
English  version.  So  that  we  have  here  a  participation 
by  all  Christian  men  in  three  things,  all  of  which  are. 


152  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

in  some  sense,  *  in  Christ  Jesus.'  Note  that  participa- 
tion in  '  the  kingdom '  stands  in  the  centre,  buttressed, 
as  it  were,  on  the  one  side  by  participation  'in  the 
tribulation,'  and  on  the  other  side  by  participation  '  in 
the  patience.'  We  may,  then,  best  bring  out  the  con- 
nection and  force  of  these  thoughts  by  looking  at  the 
common  royalty,  the  common  road  leading  to  it,  and 
the  common  temper  in  which  the  road  is  trodden — all 
which  things  do  inhere  in  Christ,  and  may  be  ours  on 
condition  of  our  union  with  Him. 

I.  So  then,  first,  note  the  common  royalty.  *  I  John 
am  a  partaker  with  you  in  the  kingdom.' 

Now  John  does  not  say, '  I  am  going  to  he  a  partaker,' 
but  says,  '  Here  and  now,  in  this  little  rocky  island  of 
Patmos,  an  exile  and  all  but  a  martyr,  I  yet,  like  all 
the  rest  of  you,  who  have  the  same  weird  to  dree,  and 
the  same  bitter  cup  to  drink,  even  now  am  a  partaker 
of  the  kingdom  that  is  in  Christ.' 

What  is  that  kingdom  ?  It  is  the  sphere  or  society, 
the  state  or  realm,  in  which  His  will  is  obeyed ;  and, 
as  we  may  say.  His  writs  run.  His  kingdom,  in 
the  deepest  sense  of  the  word,  is  only  there,  where 
loving  hearts  yield,  and  where  His  will  is  obeyed 
consciously,  because  the  conscious  obedience  is  rooted 
in  love. 

But  then,  besides  that,  there  is  a  wider  sense  of  the 
expression  in  which  Christ's  kingdom  stretches  all 
through  the  universe,  and  wherever  the  authority  of 
God  is  there  is  the  kingdom  of  the  exalted  Christ,  who 
is  the  right  hand  and  active  power  of  God. 

So  then  the  •  kingdom  that  is  in  Christ '  is  yours  if 
you  ar©  'in  Christ.'  Or,  to  put  it  into  other  words, 
whoever  is  ruled  by  Christ  has  a  share  in  rule  with 
Christ.    Hence  the  words  in  the  context  here,  to  which 


V.9]  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE  153 

a  double  meaning  may  be  attached,  *He  hath  made  us 
to  be  a  kingdom.'  We  are  His  kingdom  in  so  far  as 
our  wills  joyfully  and  lovingly  submit  to  His  author- 
ity; and  then,  in  so  far  as  we  are  His  kingdom,  we 
are  kings.  So  far  as  our  wills  bow  to  and  own  His 
sway,  they  are  invested  with  power  to  govern  our- 
selves and  others.  His  subjects  are  the  world's 
masters.  Even  now,  in  the  midst  of  confusions  and 
rebellions,  and  apparent  contradictions,  the  true  rule 
in  the  world  belongs  to  the  men  and  women  who  bow 
to  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ.  Whoever  worships 
Him,  saying,  '  Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory,  O  Christ,' 
receives  from  Him  the  blessed  assurance,  '  and  I  appoint 
unto  you  a  kingdom.'  His  vassals  are  altogether 
princes.  He  is  '  King  of  kings,'  not  only  in  the  sense 
that  He  is  higher  than  the  kings  of  the  earth,  but  also 
in  the  sense,  though  it  be  no  part  of  the  true  meaning 
of  the  expression,  that  those  whom  He  rules  are,  by 
the  very  submission  to  His  rule,  elevated  to  royal 
dignity. 

We  rule  over  ourselves,  which  is  the  best  kingdom 
to  govern,  on  condition  of  saying : — '  Lord  !  I  cannot 
rule  myself,  do  Thou  rule  me.'  When  we  put  the  reins 
into  His  hands,  when  we  put  our  consciences  into  His 
keeping,  when  we  take  our  law  from  His  gentle  and 
yet  sovereign  lips,  when  we  let  Him  direct  our  think- 
ing; when  His  word  is  absolute  truth  that  ends  all 
controversy,  and  when  His  will  is  the  supreme  author- 
ity that  puts  an  end  to  every  hesitation  and  reluctance, 
then  we  are  masters  of  ourselves.  The  man  that  has 
rule  over  his  own  spirit  is  the  true  king.  He  that  thus 
is  Christ's  man  is  his  own  master.  Being  lords  of  our- 
selves, and  having  our  foot  upon  our  passions,  and 
conscience  and  will  flexible  in  His  hand  and  yielding  to 


154  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

His  lightest  touch,  as  a  fine-mouthed  horse  does  to  the 
least  pressure  of  the  bit,  then  we  are  masters  of  cir- 
cumstances and  the  world ;  and  all  things  are  on  our 
side  if  we  are  on  Christ's  side. 

So  we  do  not  need  to  wait  for  Heaven  to  be  heirs, 
that  is  possessors,  of  the  kingdom  that  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  Him.  Christ's  dominion  is 
shared  even  now  and  here  by  all  who  serve  Him.  It  is 
often  hard  for  us  to  believe  this  about  ourselves  or 
others,  especially  when  toil  weighs  upon  us,  and  adverse 
circumstances,  against  which  we  have  vainly  striven, 
tyrannise  over  our  lives.  We  feel  more  like  powerless 
victims  than  lords  of  the  world.  Our  lives  seem  con- 
cerned with  such  potty  trivialities,  and  so  absolutely 
lorded  over  by  externals,  that  to  talk  of  a  present 
dominion  over  a  present  world  seems  irony,  flatly  con- 
tradicted by  facts.  We  are  tempted  to  throw  forward 
the  realisation  of  our  regality  to  the  future.  We  are 
heirs,  indeed,  of  a  great  kingdom,  but  for  the  present 
are  set  to  keep  a  small  huckster's  shop  in  a  back  street. 
So  we  faithlessly  say  to  ourselves;  and  we  need  to 
open  our  eyes,  as  John  would  have  his  brethren  do,  to 
the  fact  of  the  present  participation  of  every  Christian 
in  the  present  kingdom  of  the  enthroned  Christ. 
There  can  be  no  more  startling  anomalies  in  our  lots 
than  were  in  his,  as  he  sat  there  in  Patmos,  a  solitary 
exile,  weighed  upon  with  many  cares,  ringed  about 
with  perils  not  a  few.  But  in  them  all  he  knew  his 
share  in  the  kingdom  to  be  real  and  inalienable,  and 
yielding  much  for  present  fruition,  however  much  more 
remained  over  for  hope  and  future  possession.  The 
kingdom  is  not  only  •  of '  but  '  in '  Jesus  Christ.  He  is, 
as  it  were,  the  sphere  in  which  it  is  realised.  If  we  are 
*  in  Him '  by  that  faith  which  engrafts  us  into  Him,  we 


V.9]  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE  155 

shall  ourselves  both  be  and  possess  that  kingdom,  and 
possess  it,  because  we  are  it. 

But  while  the  kingdom  is  present,  its  perfect  form  is 
future.  The  crown  of  righteousness  is  laid  up  for 
God's  people,  even  though  they  are  already  a  kingdom, 
and  already  (according  to  the  true  reading  of  Rev.  v. 
10)  'reign  upon  the  earth.'  Great  hopes,  the  greater 
for  their  dimness,  gather  round  that  future  when  the 
faithfulness  of  the  steward  shall  be  exchanged  for  the 
authority  of  the  ruler,  and  the  toil  of  the  servant  for 
the  joy  of  the  Lord.  The  presumptuous  ambition  of 
John  in  his  early  request  did  not  sin  by  setting  his 
hopes  too  high  ;  for,  much  as  he  asked  when  he  sought 
a  place  at  the  right  hand  of  his  Master's  throne,  his 
wildest  dreams  fell  far  below  the  reality,  reserved  for 
all  who  overcome,  of  a  share  in  that  very  throne  itself. 
There  is  room  there,  not  for  one  or  two  of  the  aris- 
tocracy of  heaven,  but  for  all  the  true  servants  of 
Christ. 

They  used  to  say  that  in  the  days  of  the  first 
Napoleon  every  French  soldier  carried  a  field-marshal's 
baton  in  his  knapsack.  That  is  to  say,  every  one  of 
them  had  the  chance  of  winning  it,  and  many  of  them 
did  win  it.  But  every  Christian  soldier  carries  a  crown 
in  his,  and  that  not  because  he  perhaps  may,  but 
because  he  certainly  will,  wear  it,  when  the  war  is 
over,  if  he  stands  by  his  flag,  and  because  he  has  it 
already  in  actual  possession,  though  for  the  present 
the  helmet  becomes  his  brow  rather  than  the  diadem. 
On  such  themes  we  can  say  little,  only  let  us  remember 
that  the  present  and  the  future  life  of  the  Christian 
are  distinguished,  not  by  the  one  possessing  the  royalty 
which  the  other  wants,  but  as  the  partial  and  perfect 
forms  of  the   same  kingdom,  which,  in  both  forms 


156  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

alike,  depends  on  our  true  abiding  in  Him.  That 
kingdom  is  in  Him,  and  is  the  common  heritage  of  all 
who  are  in  Him,  and  who,  on  earth  and  in  heaven, 
possess  it  in  degrees  varying  accurately  with  the 
measure  in  which  they  are  in  Christ,  and  He  in  them. 

II.  Note,  secondly,  the  common  road  to  that  common 
royalty. 

As  I  have  remarked,  the  kingdom  is  the  central 
thought  here,  and  the  other  two  stand  on  either  side  as 
subsidiary :  on  the  one  hand,  a  common  *  tribulation ' ; 
on  the  other,  a  common  *  patience.'  The  former  is  the 
path  by  which  all  have  to  travel  who  attain  the 
royalty ;  the  latter  is  the  common  temper  in  which  all 
the  travellers  must  face  the  steepnesses  and  rough- 
nesses of  the  road. 

•Tribulation'  has,  no  doubt,  primarily  reference  to 
actual  persecution,  such  as  had  sent  John  to  his  exile 
in  Patmos,  and  hung  like  a  threatening  thunder-cloud 
over  the  Asiatic  churches.  But  the  significance  of  the 
word  is  not  exhausted  thereby.  It  is  always  true  that 
'  through  much  tribulation  we  must  enter  the  kingdom.' 
All  who  are  bound  to  the  same  place,  and  who  start 
from  the  same  place,  must  go  by  the  same  road.  There 
are  no  short-cuts  nor  by-paths  for  the  Christian 
pilgrim.  The  only  way  to  the  kingdom  that  is  in 
Christ  is  the  road  which  He  Himself  trod.  There  is 
•tribulation  in  Christ,'  as  surely  as  in  Him  there  are 
peace  and  victory,  and  if  we  are  in  Christ  we  shall  be 
sure  to  get  our  share  of  it.  The  Christian  course  brings 
new  difficulties  and  trials  of  its  own,  and  throws  those 
who  truly  out-and-out  adopt  it  into  relations  with  the 
world  which  will  surely  lead  to  oppositions  and  pains. 
If  we  are  in  the  world  as  Christ  was,  we  shall  have  to 
make  up  our  minds  to  share  •  the  reproach  of  Christ ' 


y.9]  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE  157 

until  Egypt  owns  Him,  and  not  Pharaoh,  for  its  King. 
If  there  be  no  such  experience,  it  is  much  more  probable 
that  the  reason  for  exemption  is  the  Christian's  world- 
liness  than  the  world's  growing  Christlikeness. 

No  doubt  the  grosser  forms  of  persecution  are  at  an 
end,  and  no  doubt  multitudes  of  nominal  Christians 
live  on  most  amicable  terms  with  the  world,  and  know 
next  to  nothing  of  the  tribulation  that  is  in  Christ. 
But  that  is  not  because  there  is  any  real  alteration  in 
the  consequences  of  union  with  Jesus,  but  because 
their  union  is  so  very  slight  and  superficial.  The  world 
'loves  its  own,'  and  what  can  it  find  to  hate  in  the 
shoals  of  people,  whose  religion  is  confined  to  their 
tongues  mostly,  and  has  next  to  nothing  to  do  with 
their  lives  ?  It  has  not  ceased  to  be  a  hard  thing  to  be 
a  real  and  thorough  Christian.  A  great  deal  in  the 
world  is  against  us  when  we  try  to  be  so,  and  a  great 
deal  in  ourselves  is  against  us.  There  will  be  '  tribula- 
tion '  by  reason  of  self-denial,  and  the  mortification 
and  rigid  suppression  or  regulation  of  habits,  tastes, 
and  passions,  which  some  people  may  be  able  to 
indulge,  but  which  we  must  cast  out,  though  dear  and 
sensitive  as  a  right  eye,  if  they  interfere  with  our 
entrance  into  life.  The  law  is  unrepealed — *  If  we  suffer 
with  Him,  we  shall  also  reign  with  Him.' 

But  this  participation  in  the  tribulation  that  is  in 
Christ  has  another  and  gentler  aspect.  The  expression 
points  to  the  blessed  softening  of  our  hardest  trials 
when  they  are  borne  in  union  with  the  Man  of  Sorrows. 
The  sunniest  lives  have  their  dark  times.  Sooner  or 
later  we  all  have  to  lay  our  account  with  hours  when 
the  heart  bleeds  and  hope  dies,  and  we  shall  not  find 
strength  to  bear  such  times  aright  unless  we  bear 
them  in  union  with  Jesus  Christ,  by  which  our  darkest 


158  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

sorrows  are  turned  into  the  tribulation  that  is  in  Him, 
and  all  the  bitterness,  or,  at  least,  the  poison  of  the 
bitterness,  taken  out  of  them,  and  they  almost  changed 
into  a  solemn  joy.  Egypt  would  be  as  barren  as  the 
desert  which  bounds  it,  were  it  not  for  the  rising  of 
the  Nile ;  so  when  the  cold  waters  of  sorrow  rise  up 
and  spread  over  our  hearts,  if  we  are  Christians,  they 
will  leave  a  precious  deposit  when  they  retire,  on  which 
will  grow  rich  harvests.  Some  edible  plants  are  not 
fit  for  use  till  they  have  had  a  touch  of  frost.  Christian 
character  wants  the  same  treatment.  It  is  needful  for 
us  that  the  road  to  the  kingdom  should  often  run 
through  the  valley  of  weeping.  Our  being  in  the 
kingdom  depends  upon  the  bending  of  our  wills  in 
submission  to  the  King ;  then  surely  nothing  should  be 
more  welcome  to  us,  as  nothing  can  be  more  needful, 
than  anything  which  bends  them,  even  if  the  fire  which 
makes  their  obstinacy  pliable,  and  softens  the  iron  so 
that  it  runs  in  the  appointed  mould,  should  have  to  be 
very  hot.  The  soil  of  the  vineyards  on  the  slopes  of 
Vesuvius  is  disintegrated  lava.  The  richest  grapes, 
from  which  a  precious  wine  is  made,  grow  on  the 
product  of  eruptions  which  tore  the  mountain-side  and 
darkened  all  the  sky.  So  our  costliest  graces  of  char- 
acter are  grown  in  a  heart  enriched  by  losses  and 
made  fertile  by  convulsions  which  rent  it  and  covered 
smiling  verdure  with  what  seemed  at  first  a  fiery  flood 
of  ruin.  The  kingdom  is  reached  by  the  road  of  tribu- 
lation. Blessed  are  they  for  whom  the  universal 
sorrows  which  flesh  is  heir  to  become  helps  heaven- 
wards because  they  are  borne  in  union  with  Jesus,  and 
so  hallowed  into  '  tribulation  that  is  in  Him.' 

III.  We    note  the    common    temper    in  which    the 
common  road  to  the  common  royalty  is  to  be  trodden. 


V.9]  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE  1.50 

•Tribulation'  refers  to  circumstances — 'patience'  to 
disposition.  We  shall  certainly  meet  with  tribulation 
if  we  are  Christians,  and  if  we  are,  we  shall  front  tribu- 
lation with  patience.  Both  are  equally,  though  in 
different  ways,  characteristics  of  all  the  true  travellers 
to  the  kingdom.  Patience  is  the  link,  so  to  speak, 
between  the  kingdom  and  the  tribulation.  Sorrow 
does  not  of  itself  lead  to  the  possession  of  the  kingdom. 
All  depends  on  the  disposition  which  the  sorrow 
evokes,  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  borne.  We  may 
take  our  sorrows  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  be  driven  by 
them  out  of  our  submission  to  Christ,  and  so  they  may 
lead  us  away  from  and  not  towards  the  kingdom.  The 
worst  affliction  is  an  affliction  wasted,  and  every  afflic- 
tion is  wasted,  unless  it  is  met  with  patience,  and  that 
in  Christ  Jesus.  Many  a  man  is  soured,  or  paralysed, 
or  driven  from  his  faith,  or  drowned  in  self-absorbed 
and  self-compassionating  regret,  or  otherwise  harmed 
by  his  sorrows,  and  the  only  way  to  get  the  real  good 
of  them  is  to  keep  closely  united  to  our  Lord,  that  in 
Him  we  may  have  patience  as  well  as  peace. 

Most  of  us  know  that  the  word  here  translated 
'patience'  means  a  great  deal  more  than  the  passive 
endurance  which  we  usually  mean  by  that  word,  and 
distinctly  includes  the  notion  of  active  perseverance. 
That  active  element  is  necessarily  implied,  for  instance, 
in  the  exhortation,  *  Let  us  run  with  patience  the  race 
that  is  set  before  us.'  Mere  uncomplaining  passive 
endurance  is  not  the  temper  which  leads  to  running 
any  race.  It  simply  bears  and  does  nothing,  but  the 
persistent  effort  of  the  runner  with  tense  muscles  calls 
for  more  than  patience.  A  vivid  metaphor  underlies 
the  word— that  of  the  fixed  attitude  of  one  bearing  up 
a  heavy  weight  or  pressure  without  yielding  or  being 


160  REVELATION  [ch.  i. 

crushed.  Such  immovable  constancy  is  more  than 
passive.  There  must  be  much  active  exercise  of  power 
to  prevent  collapse.  But  all  the  strength  is  not  to  be 
exhausted  in  the  effort  to  bear  without  flinching. 
There  should  be  enough  remaining  for  work  that 
remains  over  and  above  the  sorrow.  The  true  Chris- 
tian patience  implies  continuance  in  well-doing,  besides 
meek  acceptance  of  tribulation.  The  first  element  in 
it  is,  no  doubt,  unmurmuring  acquiescence  in  what- 
soever affliction  from  God  or  man  beats  against  us  on 
our  path.  But  the  second  is,  continual  effort  after 
Christian  progress,  notwithstanding  the  tribulation. 
The  storm  must  not  blow  us  out  of  our  course.  We 
must  still '  bear  up  and  steer  right  onward,'  in  spite  of 
all  its  force  on  our  faces,  or,  as  '  birds  of  tempest-loving 
kind'  do,  so  spread  our  pinions  as  to  be  helped  by  it 
towards  our  goal. 

Do  I  address  any  one  who  has  to  stagger  along  the 
Christian  course  under  some  heavy  and,  perhaps,  hope- 
less load  of  sorrow  ?  There  is  a  plain  lesson  for  all  of 
us  in  such  circumstances.  It  is  not  less  my  duty  to 
seek  to  grow  in  grace  and  Christlikeness  because  I  am 
sad.  That  is  my  first  business  at  all  times  and  under 
all  changes  of  fortune  and  mood.  My  sorrows  are 
meant  to  help  me  to  that,  and  if  they  so  absorb  me 
that  I  am  indifferent  to  the  obligation  of  Christian 
progress,  then  my  patience,  however  stoical  and  un- 
complaining it  may  be,  is  not  the  *  perseverance  that  is 
in  Christ  Jesus.'  Nor  does  tribulation  absolve  from 
plain  duties.  Poor  Mary  of  Bethany  sat  still  in  the 
house,  with  her  hands  lying  idly  in  her  lap,  and  her 
regrets  busy  with  the  most  unprofitable  of  all  occupa- 
tions— fancying  how  different  all  would  have  been  if 
one  thing  had  been  different.    Sorrow  is  excessive  and 


V.9]  THREEFOLD  COMMON  HERITAGE  161 

misdirected  and  selfish,  and  therefore  hurtful,  when 
for  the  sake  of  indulgence  in  it  we  fling  up  plain  tasks. 
The  glory  of  the  kingdom  shining  athwart  the  gloom 
of  the  tribulation  should  help  us  to  be  patient,  and  the 
patience,  laying  hold  of  the  tribulation  by  the  right 
handle,  should  convert  it  into  a  blessing  and  an  instru- 
ment for  helping  us  to  a  fuller  possession  of  the 
kingdom. 

This  temper  of  brave  and  active  persistence  in  the 
teeth  of  difficulties  will  only  be  found  where  these  other 
two  are  found — in  Christ.  The  stem  from  which  the 
three-leaved  plant  grows  must  be  rooted  in  Him.  He 
is  the  King,  and  in  Him  abiding  we  have  our  share  of 
the  common  royalty.  He  is  the  forerunner  and  path- 
finder, and,  abiding  in  Him,  we  tread  the  common  path 
to  the  common  kingdom,  which  is  hallowed  at  every 
rough  place  by  the  print  of  His  bleeding  feet.  He  is 
the  leader  and  perfecter  of  faith,  and,  abiding  in  Him, 
we  receive  some  breath  of  the  spirit  which  was  in  Him, 
who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him,  endured 
the  Cross,  despising  the  shame.  Abiding  in  Him,  we 
shall  possess  in  our  measure  all  which  is  in  Him,  and 
find  ourselves  partakers  with  an  innumerable  company 
'in  the  tribulation  and  kingdom  and  patience  which 
are  in  Christ  Jesus,'  and  may  hope  to  hear  at  last,  '  Ye 
are  they  which  have  continued  with  Me  in  My  tempta- 
tions, and  I  appoint  unto  you  a  Kingdom,  as  My  Father 
hath  appointed  unto  Me.' 


THE  LIVING  ONE  WHO  BECAME  DEAD 

*  I  am  He  that  liyeth,  and  was  dead ;  and,  behold,  I  am  alive  for  eyermore. 
Amen ;  and  have  the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death,'— Rkv.  i.  18. 

If  we  had  been  in  •  the  isle  which  is  called  Patmos ' 
when  John  saw  the  glorified  Lord,  and  heard  these 
majestic  words  from  His  mouth,  we  should  probably 
have  seen  nothing  but  the  sunlight  glinting  on  the 
water,  and  heard  only  the  wave  breaking  on  the  shore. 
The  Apostle  tells  us  that  he  '  was  in  the  Spirit ' ;  that  is, 
in  a  state  in  which  sense  is  lulled  to  sleep,  and  the 
inner  man  made  aware  of  supersensual  realities.  The 
communication  was  none  the  less  real  because  it  was 
not  perceived  by  the  outward  eye  or  ear.  It  was  not 
born  in,  though  it  was  perceived  by,  the  Apostle's  spirit. 
We  must  hold  fast  by  the  objective  reality  of  the  com- 
munication, which  is  not  in  the  slightest  degree  affected 
by  the  assumption  that  sense  had  no  part  in  it. 

Further  what  John  once  saw  always  is ;  the  vision 
was  a  transient  revelation  of  a  permanent  reality. 
The  snowy  summits  are  there,  behind  the  cloud-wrack 
that  hides  them,  as  truly  as  they  were  when  the  sun- 
shine gleamed  on  their  peaks.  The  veil  has  fallen 
again,  but  all  behind  it  is  as  it  was.  So  this  revelation, 
both  in  regard  of  the  magnificent  symbolic  image  im- 
printed on  the  Apostle's  consciousness,  and  in  regard 
of  the  words  which  he  reports  to  us  as  impressed  upon 
him  by  Christ  Himself,  is  meant  for  us  just  as  it  was 
for  him,  or  for  those  to  whom  it  was  originally 
transmitted.  •  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear 
what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches.'  And  as  we 
meditate  upon  this  proclamation  by  the  kingly  Christ 
Himself  of  His  own  style  and  titles,  I  think  we  shall 

1C2 


V.  18]  THE  LIVING  ONE  163 

best  gain  its  full  sublimity  and  force  if  we  simply  take 
the  words,  clause  by  clause,  as  they  stand  in  the  text. 

I.  First,  then,  the  royal  Christ  proclaims  His  absolute 
life. 

Observe  that,  as  the  Revised  Version  will  show  those 
who  use  it,  there  is  a  much  closer  connection  between 
the  words  of  our  text  and  those  of  the  preceding  verse 
than  our  Authorised  Version  gives.  We  must  strike 
out  that  intrusive  and  wholly  needless  supplement,  •  I 
am,'  and  read  the  sentence  unbrokenly :  *  I  am  the  first, 
and  the  last  and  the  living  One.' 

Now  that  close  connection  of  clauses  in  itself  sug- 
gests that  this  expression,  *  the  Living  One,'  means 
something  more  than  the  mere  declaration  that  He  was 
alive.  That  follows  appropriately,  as  we  shall  see,  in 
the  last  clause  of  the  verse,  which  cannot  be  cleared 
from  the  charge  of  tautology,  unless  we  attach  a  far 
deeper  meaning  than  the  mere  declaration  of  life  to 
this  first  solemn  clause.  What  can  stand  worthily  by 
the  side  of  these  majestic  words,  *  I  am  the  first  and 
the  last '  ?  These  claim  a  Divine  attribute  and  are  a 
direct  quotation  from  ancient  prophecy,  where  they 
are  spoken  as  by  the  great  Jehovah  of  the  old  covenant, 
and  appear  in  a  connection  which  makes  any  tamper- 
ing with  them  the  more  impossible.  For  there  follow 
upon  them  the  great  words,  *and  beside  Me  there  is  no 
God.'  But  this  royal  Christ  from  the  heavens  puts  out 
an  unpresumptuous  hand,  and  draws  to  Himself,  as 
properly  belonging  to  Him,  the  very  style  and  signature 
of  the  Divine  nature,  *I  am  the  first' — before  all 
creatural  being,  •  and  the  last,'  as  He  to  whom  it  all 
tends — its  goal  and  aim.  And  therefore  I  say  that  this 
connection  of  clauses,  apart  altogether  from  other  con- 
sideration,  absolutely    forbids  our  taking  this  great 


164  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

word, '  the  Living  One,'  as  meaning  less  than  the  similar 
lofty  and  profound  signification.  It  means,  as  I 
believe,  exactly  what  Jesus  Christ  meant  when,  in  the 
hearing  of  this  same  Apostle,  He  said  upon  earth,  'As 
the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself  so  hath  He  given' — 
strange  paradox — *  so  hath  He  given  to  the  Son  to  have 
life  in  Himself.'  A  life  which,  considered  in  contrast 
with  all  the  life  of  creatures,  is  underived,  independent, 
self-feeding,  and,  considered  in  contrast  with  the  life 
of  the  Father  with  whom  that  Son  stands  in  ineffable 
and  unbroken  union,  is  bestowed.  It  is  a  paradox,  I 
know,  but  until  we  assume  that  we  have  sounded  all 
the  depths  and  climbed  all  the  heights,  and  gone  round 
the  boundless  boundaries  of  the  circumference  of  that 
Divine  nature,  we  have  no  business  to  say  that  it  is 
impossible.  And  this,  as  I  take  it,  is  what  the  great 
words  that  echoed  from  Heaven  in  the  Apostle's  hear- 
ing upon  Patmos  meant — the  claim  by  the  glorified 
Christ  to  possess  absolute  fontal  life,  and  to  be  the 
Source  of  all  creation,  '  in  whom  was  life.'  He  was  not 
only  '  the  Living  One,'  but,  as  Himself  has  said.  He  was 
'  the  Life.'  And  so  He  was  the  agent  of  all  creation, 
as  Scripture  teaches  us. 

Now  I  am  not  going  to  dwell  upon  this  great  thought, 
but  I  simply  wish,  in  one  sentence,  to  leave  with  you 
my  own  earnest  conviction  that  it  is  the  teaching  of 
all  Scripture,  that  it  is  distinctly  the  teaching  of  Christ 
Himself  when  on  earth ;  that  it  is  repeated  in  a  real 
revelation  from  Himself  to  the  recipient  seer  in  this 
vision  before  us,  that  it  is  fundamental  to  all  true 
understanding  of  Christ's  person  and  work,  since  none 
of  His  acts  on  earth  shine  in  their  full  lustre  of  beauty 
unless  the  thought  of  His  pre-incarnate  and  essential 
life  is  held  fast  to  heighten  all  the  marvels  of  His 


V.18]  THE  LIVING  ONE  165 

condescension,  and  to  inrest  with  power  all  the  sweet- 
ness of  His  pity.  '  I  am  the  first,  and  the  last,  and  the 
Living  One.' 

II.  Secondly,  the  royal  Christ  proclaims  His  sub- 
mission to  death. 

The  language  of  the  original  is,  perhaps,  scarcely 
capable  of  smooth  transference  into  English,  but  it  is 
to  be  held  fast  notwithstanding,  for  what  is  said  is  not 
•I  was  dead,' as  describing  a  past  condition,  but  'I 
became  dead,'  as  describing  a  past  act.  There  is  all  the 
difference  between  these  two,  and  avoidance  of  awk- 
wardness is  dearly  purchased  by  obliteration  of  the 
solemn  teaching  of  that  profound  word  '  became.' 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  this  at  any  length,  but  I 
suggest  to  you  one  or  two  plain  considerations.  Such 
a  statement  implies  our  Lord's  assumption  of  flesh. 
The  only  possibility  of  death,  for  *  the  Living  One,'  lies 
in  His  enwrapping  Himself  with  that  which  can  die. 
As  you  might  put  a  piece  of  asbestos  into  a  twist  of 
cotton  wool,  over  which  the  flame  could  have  power, 
or  as  a  sun  might  plunge  into  thick  envelopes  of  dark- 
ness, so  this  eternal,  absolute  Life  gathered  to  itself  by 
voluntary  accretion  the  surrounding  which  was  capable 
of  mortality.  It  is  very  significant  that  the  same  word 
which  the  seer  in  Patmos  employs  to  describe  the 
Lord's  submission  to  death  is  the  word  which,  in  his 
character  of  evangelist,  he  employs  to  describe  the 
same  Lord's  incarnation:  'The  Word  became  flesh,' 
and  so  the  Life  '  became  dead.'  And  this  expression 
implies,  too,  another  thing,  on  which  I  need  not  dwell, 
because  I  was  touching  on  it  in  a  previous  sermon,  and 
that  is  the  entirely  voluntary  character  of  our  Lord's 
submission  to  the  great  law  of  mortality.  He  'be- 
came '  dead,  and  it  was  His  act  that  He  became  so. 


166  REVELATION  [ch.l 

Thus  we  are  brought  into  the  presence  of  the  most 
stupendous  fact  in  the  world's  history.  Brethren,  as  I 
said  that  the  firm  grasp  of  the  other  truth  of  Christ's 
absolute  life  was  fundamental  to  all  understanding  of 
His  earthly  career,  so  I  say  that  this  fundamental 
truth  of  His  voluntarily  becoming  dead  is  fundamental 
to  all  understanding  of  His  Cross.  Without  that 
thought  His  death  becomes  mere  surplusage,  in  so  far 
as  His  power  over  men  is  concerned.  With  it,  what 
adoration  can  be  too  lowly,  what  gratitude  can  be 
disproportionate?  He  arrays  Himself  in  that  which 
can  die,  as  if  the  sun  plunged  into  the  shadow  of 
eclipse.  Let  us  bow  before  that  mystery  of  Divine 
love,  the  death  of  the  Lord  of  Life.  The  motive  which 
impelled  Him,  the  consequences  which  followed,  are 
not  in  view  here.  These  are  full  of  blessedness  and  of 
wonder,  but  we  are  now  to  concentrate  our  thoughts 
on  the  bare  fact,  and  to  find  in  it  food  for  endless 
adoration  and  for  perpetual  praise. 

But  there  is  another  consideration  that  I  may  sug- 
gest. The  eternal  Life  became  dead.  Then  the  awful 
solitude — awful  when  we  think  of  it  for  ourselves, 
awful  when  we  stand  by  the  bed,  and  feel  so  near,  and 
yet  so  infinitely  remote  from  the  dear  one  that  may  be 
lying  there — the  awful  solitude  is  solitary  no  longer. 
'All  alone,  so  Heaven  has  willed,  we  die';  but  as 
travellers  are  cheered  on  a  solitary  road  when  they 
see  the  footprints  that  they  know  belonged  to  loved 
and  trusted  ones  who  have  trodden  it  before,  that 
desolate  loneliness  is  less  lonely  when  we  think  that 
He  became  dead.  He  will  come  to  the  shrinking,  single 
soul  as  He  joined  Himself  to  the  sad  travellers  on  the 
road  to  Emmaus,  and  'our  hearts'  may  burn  within 
us,  even  in  that  last  hour  of  their  beating,  if  we  can 


V.  18]  THE  LIVING  ONE  167 

remember  who  has  become  dead  and  trodden  the  road 
before  us. 

III.  The  royal  Christ  proclaims  His  eternal  life  in 
glory. 

•  Behold ! ' — as  if  calling  attention  to  a  wonder — •  I 
am  alive  for  evermore.'  Again,  I  say,  we  have  here  a 
distinctly  Divine  prerogative  claimed  by  the  exalted 
Christ,  as  properly  belonging  to  Himself.  For  that 
eternal  life  of  which  He  speaks  is  by  no  means  the 
communicated  immortality  which  He  imparts  to  them 
that  in  His  love  go  down  to  death,  but  it  is  the  inherent 
eternal  life  of  the  Divine  nature. 

But,  mark,  who  is  the  *  I '  that  speaks  ?  The  seer  has 
told  us :  '  One  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man ' — which  title, 
whether  it  repeats  the  name  which  our  Lord  habitually 
used,  or  whether,  as  some  persons  suppose,  it  should 
be  read  '  a  Son  of  Man,'  and  merely  declares  that  the 
vision  of  the  glorified  One  was  manlike,  is  equally 
relevant  for  my  present  purpose.  For  that  is  to  ask 
you  to  mark  that  the  '  I '  of  my  text  is  the  Divine- 
human  Jesus.  The  manhood  is  so  intertwined  with 
the  Deity  that  the  absolute  life  of  the  latter  has,  as  it 
were,  flowed  over  and  glorified  the  former  ;  and  it  is  a 
Man  who  lays  His  hand  upon  the  Divine  prerogative, 
and  says, '  I  live  for  evermore.* 

Now  why  do  I  dwell  upon  thoughts  like  this  ?  Not 
for  the  purpose  merely  of  putting  accurately  what  I 
believe  to  be  the  truth,  but  for  the  sake  of  opening  out 
to  you  and  to  myself  the  infinite  treasures  of  consola- 
tion and  strength  which  lie  in  that  thought  that  He 
who  *  is  alive  for  evermore '  is  not  merely  Divine  in  His 
absolute  life,  but,  as  Son  of  Man,  lives  for  ever.  And 
so, '  because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also.'  We  cannot  die 
as  long  as  Christ  is  alive.     And  if  we  knit  our  hearts  to 


168  REVELATION  [ch.i. 

Him,  the  Divine  glory  which  flows  over  His  Manhood 
will  trickle  down  to  ours,  and  we,  too,  though  by- 
derivation,  shall  possess  as  immortal  —  and,  in  its 
measure,  as  glorious — a  life  as  that  of  the  Brother 
who  reigns  in  Heaven,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus. 

His  resurrection  is  not  only  the  demonstration  of 
what  manhood  is  capable  *of,  and  so,  as  I  believe,  the 
one  irrefragable  and  all-satisfying  proof  of  immortality, 
but  it  is  also  the  actual  source  of  that  immortal  life 
to  all  of  us,  if  we  will  trust  ourselves  to  Him.  For  it 
is  only  because  '  He  both  died  and  rose  and  revived ' 
that  He,  in  the  truest  and  properest  sense,  becomes 
the  gift  of  life  to  us  men.  The  alabaster  box  was 
broken,  and  the  house  was  filled  with  the  odour  of  the 
ointment.  Christ's  death  is  the  world's  life.  Christ's 
resurrection  is  the  pledge  and  the  source  of  eternal 
life  for  us. 

IV.  And  so,  lastly,  the  royal  Christ  proclaims  His 
authority  over  the  dim  regions  of  the  dead. 

Much  to  be  regretted  are  two  things  in  our 
Authorised  Version's  rendering  of  the  final  words  of 
our  text.  One  is  the  order  in  which,  following  an 
inferior  reading,  it  has  placed  the  two  things  specified. 
And  the  other  is  that  deplorable  mistranslation,  as  it 
has  come  to  be,  of  the  word  hades  by  the  word  '  hell.' 
The  true  original  does  not  read  '  hell  and  death,'  but 
'  death  and  hades,'  the  dim  unseen  regions  in  which  all 
the  dead,  whatsoever  their  condition  may  be,  are 
gathered.  The  hades  of  the  New  Testament  includes 
the  paradise  into  w^hich  the  penitent  thief  was  promised 
entrance,  as  well  as  the  gehenna  which  threatened  to 
open  for  the  impenitent. 

Here  it  is  figured  as  being  a  great  gloomy  fortress, 
with  bars  and  gates  and  locks,  of  which  that '  shadow 


V.  18]  THE  LIVING  ONE  169 

feared  of  man'  is  the  warder,  and  keeps  the  portals. 
But  he  does  not  keep  the  keys.  The  kingly  Christ  has 
these  in  His  own  hand.  So,  brethren.  He  has  authority 
to  open  and  to  shut ;  and  death  is  not  merely  a  terror 
nor  is  it  altogether  accounted  for,  when  we  say  either 
that  it  is  the  fruit  of  sin,  or  that  it  is  the  result  of 
physical  laws.  For  behind  the  laws  is  the  will — the  will 
of  the  loving  Christ.  It  is  His  hand  that  opens  the  dark 
door,  and  they  who  listen  aright  may  hear  Him  say, 
when  He  does  it, '  Come !  My  people ;  enter  thou  into  thy 
chamber  until  these  calamities  be  overpast.'  '  He 
openeth,  and  no  man  shutteth;  He  shutteth,  and  no  man 
openeth.'  So  is  not  the  terror  gone ;  and  '  the  raven 
plumes  of  that  darkness  smoothed  until  it  smiles '  ? 

If  we  believe  that  He  has  the  keys,  how  shall  we 
dread  when  ourselves  or  our  dear  ones  have  to  enter 
into  the  portal?  There  are  two  gates  to  the  prison- 
house,  and  when  the  one  that  looks  earthwards  opens, 
the  other,  that  gives  on  the  heavens,  opens  too,  and 
the  prison  becomes  a  thoroughfare,  and  the  light  shines 
through  the  short  tunnel  even  to  the  hither  side. 

Because  He  has  the  keys,  He  will  not  leave  His  holy 
ones  in  the  fetters.  And  for  ourselves,  and  for  our 
dearest,  we  have  the  right  to  think  that  the  darkness 
is  so  short  as  to  be  but  like  an  imperceptible  wink  of 
the  eye ;  and  ere  we  know  that  we  have  passed  into  it, 
we  shall  have  passed  out. 

*  This  is  the  gate  of  the  Lord,  into  which  the  righteous 
shall  enter.'  And  it  may  be  with  us  as  it  was  with  the 
Apostle  who  was  awakened  out  of  his  sleep  by  the 
angel — only  we  shall  be  awakened  out  of  ours  by  the 
angel's  Master — and  who  did  not  come  to  himself,  and 
know  that  he  had  been  delivered,  until  he  had  passed 
through  the  iron  gate  '  that  opened  to  him  of  its  own 


170  REVELATION  [oh.ii. 

accord*;  and  then,  bewildered,  he  recovered  himself 
when  he  found  that,  with  the  morning  breaking  over 
his  head,  he  stood,  delivered,  in  the  city. 


THE  SEVEN  STARS  AND  THE  SEVEN 
CANDLESTICKS 

* ...  He  that  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  His  right  hand,  who  walketh  in  the 
midst  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks.'— Rev.  ii.  1. 

It  is  one  of  the  obligations  which  we  owe  to  hostile 
criticism  that  we  have  been  forced  to  recognise  with 
great  clearness  the  wide  difference  between  the  repre- 
sentation of  Christ  in  John's  Gospel  and  that  in  the 
Apocalypse.  That  there  is  such  a  contrast  is  unques- 
tionable. The  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of  the  earth, 
going  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer,  strikes  one  at 
once  as  being  unlike  the  Christ  whom  the  Evangelist 
painted  weeping  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus.  We  can 
afford  to  recognise  the  fact,  though  we  demur  to  the 
inference  that  both  representations  cannot  have  pro- 
ceeded from  one  pen.  Surely  that  is  not  a  necessary 
conclusion  unless  the  two  pictures  are  contradictory. 
Does  the  variety  amount  to  discordance  ?  Unless  it 
do,  the  variety  casts  no  shadow  of  suspicion  on  the 
common  authorship.  I,  for  my  part,  see  no  inconsist- 
ency in  them,  and  thankfully  accept  both  as  complet- 
ing each  other. 

This  grand  vision,  which  forms  the  introduction  to 
the  whole  Book  of  the  Apocalypse,  gives  us  indeed 
the  Lord  Jesus  clothed  with  majesty  and  wielding 
supreme  power,  but  it  also  shows  us  the  old  love  and 
tenderness.  It  was  the  old  voice  which  fell  on  John's 
ear,  in  words  heard  from  Him  before,  •  Fear  not.'    It 


v.l]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  171 

was  the  same  hand  as  he  had  often  clasped  that  was 
lovingly  laid  upon  him  to  strengthen  him.  The  assur- 
ance which  He  gives  His  Apostle  declares  at  once  the 
change  in  the  circumstances  of  His  Being,  and  in  the 
functions  which  He  discharges,  and  the  substantial 
identity  of  His  Being  through  all  the  changes :  *  I  am 
the  first,  and  the  last.  ...  I  am  the  Living  One,  who  was 
dead,  and  behold  I  am  alive  for  evermore.'  This  vision 
and  the  whole  book  calls  to  us, '  Behold  the  Lion  of  the 
Tribe  of  Judah ' ;  and  when  we  look,  *  Lo,  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne,  stands  a  Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain ' — the 
well-known  meek  and  patient  Jesus,  the  sufifering 
Redeemer — *  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world.' 

Still  further,  this  vision  is  the  natural  introduction 
to  all  that  follows,  and  indeed  defines  the  main  purpose 
of  the  whole  book,  inasmuch  as  it  shows  us  Christ 
sustaining,  directing,  dwelling,  in  His  Churches.  We 
are  thus  led  to  expect  that  the  remainder  of  the 
prophecy  shall  have  the  Church  of  Christ  for  its  chief 
subject,  and  that  the  politics  of  the  world,  and  the 
mutations  of  nations,  shall  come  into  view  mainly  in 
their  bearing  upon  that. 

The  words  of  our  text,  then,  which  resumes  the  prin- 
cipal emblem  of  the  preceding  vision,  are  meant  to  set 
forth  permanent  truths  in  regard  to  Christ's  Churches, 
His  relation  to  them,  and  theirs  to  the  world,  which  I 
desire  to  bring  to  your  thoughts  now.  They  speak  to 
us  of  the  Churches  and  their  servants,  of  the  Churches 
and  their  work,  of  the  Churches  and  their  Lord. 

I.  We  have  in  the  symbol  important  truths  concern- 
ing the  Churches  and  their  servants. 

The  seven  stars  are  the  angels  of  the  seven  Churches. 
Now  I  need  not  spend  time  in  enumerating  all  the 


172  REVELATION  [oh.  ii. 

strange  and  mystical  interpretations  which  have  been 
given  to  these  angels  of  the  Churches.  I  see  no  need 
for  taking  them  to  have  been  anything  but  men ;  the 
recognised  heads  and  representatives  of  the  respective 
communities.  The  word  'angel'  means  messenger. 
Those  superhuman  beings  who  are  usually  designated 
by  it  are  so  called,  not  to  describe  their  nature,  but 
their  function.  They  are  '  God's  messengers,*  and  their 
name  moans  only  that.  Then  the  word  is  certainly 
used,  both  in  its  Hebrew  and  Greek  forms,  in  reference 
to  men.  It  is  applied  to  priests,  and  even  in  one 
passage,  as  it  would  appear,  to  an  officer  of  the 
synagogue.  If  here  we  find  that  each  Church  had  its 
angel,  who  had  a  letter  addressed  to  him,  who  is 
spoken  to  in  words  of  rebuke  and  exhortation,  who 
could  sin  and  repent,  who  could  be  persecuted  and  die, 
who  could  fall  into  heresies  and  be  perfected  by  suffer- 
ing, it  seems  to  me  a  violent  and  unnecessary  hypo- 
thesis that  a  superhuman  being  is  in  question.  And 
the  name  by  which  he  is  called  need  not  imply  more 
than  his  function, — that  of  being  the  messenger  and 
representative  of  the  Church. 

Believing  this  as  the  more  probable  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  I  see  in  the  relations  between  these  men  and 
the  little  communities  to  which  they  belonged  an 
example  of  what  should  be  found  existing  between  all 
congregations  of  faithful  men  and  the  officers  whom 
they  have  chosen,  be  the  form  of  their  polity  what  it 
may.  There  are  certain  broad  principles  which  must 
underlie  all  Christian  organisations,  and  are  incom- 
parably more  important  than  the  details  of  Church 
government. 

Note  then,  first,  that  the  messengers  are  rulers.  They 
are  described  in  a  double  manner — by  a  name  which 


V.  1]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  178 

expresses  subordination,  and  by  a  figure  which  ex- 
presses authority.  I  need  not  do  more  than  remind 
you  that  throughout  Scripture,  from  the  time  when 
Balaam  beheld  from  afar  the  star  that  should  come 
out  of  Jacob  and  the  sceptre  that  should  rise  out  of 
Israel,  that  has  been  the  symbol  for  rulers.  It  is  so 
notably  in  this  Book  of  Revelation.  Whatever  other 
ideas,  then,  are  connected  with  its  use  here,  this  lead- 
ing one  of  authority  must  not  be  lost  sight  of. 

But  this  double  representation  of  these  persons  as 
being  in  one  aspect  servants  and  in  another  rulers, 
perfectly  embodies  the  very  essential  characteristic 
of  all  office  and  power  in  Christ's  Church.  It  is  a 
repetition  in  pictorial  form  of  the  great  principle,  so 
sadly  forgotten,  which  He  gave  when  He  said,  •  He 
that  is  greatest  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant.' 
The  higher  are  exalted  that  they  may  serve  the  lower. 
Dignity  and  authority  mean  liberty  for  more  and  more 
self -forgetting  work.  Power  binds  its  possessor  to  toil. 
Wisdom  is  stored  in  one,  that  from  him  it  may  flow  to 
the  foolish ;  strength  is  given  that  by  its  holder  feeble 
hands  may  be  stayed.  Noblesse  oblige.  The  King  Him- 
self has  obeyed  the  law.  '  Jesus,  knowing  the  Father 
had  given  all  things  into  His  hands,  took  a  towel,  and 
girded  Himself.'  We  are  redeemed  because  He  came 
to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many. 
He  is  among  us  'as  He  that  serveth.'  God  Himself 
has  obeyed  the  law.  He  is  above  all  that  He  may  bless 
all.  He,  the  highest,  stoops  the  most  deeply.  His 
dominion  is  built  on  love,  and  stands  in  giving.  And 
that  law  which  makes  the  throne  of  God  the  refuge 
of  all  the  weak,  and  the  treasury  of  all  the  poor,  is 
given  for  our  guidance  in  our  humble  measure.  Where- 
soever Christian  men  think  more  of  themselves  and  of 


174  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

their  dignity  than  of  their  brethren  and  their  work; 
wheresoever  gifts  are  hoarded  selfishly  or  selfishly 
squandered;  wheresoever  the  accidents  of  authority, 
its  baubles  and  signature,  its  worldly  consequences, 
and  its  pride  of  place,  bulk  larger  in  its  possessors' 
eyes  than  its  solemn  obligations; — there  the  law  is 
broken,  and  the  heathen  devilish  notion  of  rule  lays 
waste  the  Church  of  God. 

The  true  idea  is  not  certain  to  be  held,  nor  its  tempt- 
ing counterfeit  to  be  avoided,  by  any  specific  form  of 
organisation.  Wherever  there  are  offices,  there  will  be 
danger  of  officialism.  Where  there  are  none,  that  will 
not  drive  out  selfishness.  Quakerism  and  Episcopacy, 
with  every  form  of  Church  government  that  lies 
between,  are  in  danger  from  the  same  source — our 
forgetfulness  that  in  Christ's  kingdom  to  rule  is  to 
serve.  All  Churches  have  shown  that  their  messengers 
could  become  'lords  over  God's  heritage.'  The  true 
spirit  of  Christ's  servants  is  not  secured  by  any  theory 
about  the  appointment  or  the  duties  of  the  servants, 
but  only  by  fellowship  and  sympathy  with  the  Master 
who  helps  us  all,  and  cares  nothing  for  any  glory 
which  He  cannot  share  with  His  disciples. 

But  to  be  servant  of  all  does  not  mean  to  do  the 
bidding  of  all.  The  service  which  imitates  Christ  is 
helpfulness,  not  subjection.  Neither  the  Church  is  to 
lord  it  over  the  messenger,  nor  the  messenger  over  the 
Church.  The  true  bond  is  broken  by  official  claims  of 
dominion  ;  it  is  broken  just  as  much  by  popular  claims 
to  control.  All  alike  are  to  stand  free  from  all  men — 
in  independence  of  will,  thought,  and  action  ;  shaping 
their  lives  and  moulding  their  beliefs,  according  to 
Christ's  will  and  Christ's  word ;  and  repelling  all 
coercion,  from  whatsoever  quarter  it  comes.    All  alike 


T.l]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  175 

are  by  love  to  serve  one  another ;  counting  every  pos- 
session, material,  intellectual,  and  spiritual,  as  given 
for  the  general  good.  The  one  guiding  principle  is, 
*He  that  is  chief  est  among  you,  let  him  be  your 
servant,'  and  the  other,  which  guards  this  from  mis- 
construction and  abuse  from  either  side,  *  One  is  your 
Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren.' 

Another  point  to  be  observed  in  this  symbol  is,  that 
the  messengers  and  the  churches  have  at  bottom  the 
same  work  to  do. 

Stars  shine,  so  do  lamps.  Light  comes  from  both,  in 
different  fashion  indeed,  and  of  a  different  quality,  but 
still  both  are  lights.  These  are  in  the  Saviour's  hands, 
those  are  by  His  side ;  but  each  is  meant  to  stream  out 
rays  of  brightness  over  a  dark  night.  So,  essentially, 
all  Christian  men  have  the  same  work  to  do.  The 
ways  of  doing  it  differ,  but  the  thing  done  is  one. 
Whatever  be  the  difference  between  those  who  hold 
offices  in  God's  Church  and  the  bulk  of  their  brethren, 
there  is  no  difference  here.  The  loftiest  gifts,  the 
most  conspicuous  position,  the  closest  approach  to  the 
central  sun,  have  no  other  purpose  than  that  which 
the  lowliest  powers,  in  the  obscurest  corner,  are  meant 
to  subserve.  The  one  distributing  Spirit  divides  to 
each  man  severally  as  He  will ;  and  whether  He 
endows  him  with  starlike  gifts,  which  soar  above  and 
blaze  over  half  the  world  with  lustre  that  lives  through 
the  centuries,  or  whether  He  sets  him  in  some  cottage 
window  to  send  out  a  tiny  cone  of  light,  that  pierces  a 
little  way  into  the  night  for  an  hour  or  two,  and  then 
is  quenched — it  is  all  one.  The  manifestation  of  the 
Spirit  is  given  to  every  man  for  the  same  purpose — to 
do  good  with.  And  we  have  all  one  office  and  function 
to  be  discharged  by  each  in  his  own  fashion — namely, 


176  REVELATION  [oh.  ii. 

to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Christ  Jesus. 

Again,  observe,  the  Churches  and  their  messengers  are 
alike  in  their  religious  condition  and  character.  The 
successive  letters  treat  his  strength  or  weakness,  his 
fervour  or  coldness,  his  sin  or  victory  over  evil,  as 
being  theirs.  He  represents  them  completely.  And 
that  representative  character  seems  to  me  to  be  the 
only  reason  worth  considering  for  supposing  that  these 
angels  are  superhuman  beings,  inasmuch  as  it  seems 
that  the  identification  is  almost  too  entire  to  be  applic- 
able to  the  relation  of  any  man  to  the  community. 
But,  perhaps,  if  we  think  of  the  facts  which  every 
day's  experience  shows  us,  we  may  see  even  in  this 
solemn  paralleling  of  the  spiritual  state  of  the  Churches 
and  of  their  servants,  a  strong  reason  for  holding  to 
our  interpretation,  as  well  as  a  very  serious  piece  of 
warning  and  exhortation  for  us  all. 

For  is  it  not  true  that  the  religious  condition  of  a 
Church,  and  that  of  its  leaders,  teachers,  pastors,  ever 
tend  to  the  same,  as  that  of  the  level  of  water  in  two 
connected  vessels?  There  is  such  a  constant  inter- 
action and  reciprocal  influence  that  uniformity  results. 
Either  a  living  teacher  will,  by  God's  grace,  quicken  a 
languid  Church,  or  a  languid  Church  will,  with  the 
devil's  help,  stifle  the  life  of  the  teacher.  Take  two  balls 
of  iron,  one  red  hot,  and  one  cold,  and  put  them  down 
beside  each  other.  How  many  degrees  of  difference 
between  them,  after  half  an  hour,  will  your  thermo- 
meter show?  Thank  God  for  the  many  instances  in 
which  one  glowing  soul,  all  aflame  with  love  of  God, 
has  sufficed  to  kindle  a  whole  heap  of  dead  matter,  and 
send  it  leaping  skyward  in  ruddy  brightness!  Alas! 
for  the  many  instances  in  which  the  wet,  green  wood 


V.  1]  THE  SEVEN  STAKS  177 

has  been  too  strong  for  the  little  spark,  and  has 
not  only  obstinately  resisted,  but  has  ignominiously 
quenched  its  ineffectual  fire  1  Thank  God,  that  when 
His  Church  lives  on  a  high  level  of  devotion,  it  has 
never  wanted  for  single  souls  who  have  towered  even 
above  that  height,  and  have  been  elevated  by  it,  as  the 
snowy  Alps  spring  not  from  the  flats  of  Holland,  but 
from  the  high  central  plateau  of  Europe.  Alas!  for 
the  leaders  who  have  rayed  out  formalism,  and  have 
chilled  down  the  Church  to  their  own  coldness,  and 
stiffened  to  their  own  deadness  ! 

Let  us,  then,  not  bandy  reproaches  from  pulpit  to 
pew,  and  from  pew  to  pulpit ;  but  remembering  that 
the  spiritual  character  of  each  helps  to  determine  the 
condition  of  the  whole,  and  the  general  condition  of 
the  body  determines  the  vigour  of  each  part,  let  us  go 
together  to  God  with  acknowledgments  of  common 
faithlessness,  and  of  our  individual  share  in  it,  and  let 
us  ask  Him  to  quicken  His  Church,  that  it  may  yield 
messengers  who  in  their  turn  shall  be  the  helpers  of 
His  people  and  the  glory  of  God. 

II.  The  text  brings  before  us  the  Churches  and  their 
work. 

Of  course,  you  understand  that  what  the  Apostle 
saw  was  not  seven  candlesticks,  which  are  a  modern 
piece  of  furniture,  but  seven  lamps.  There  is  a  distinct 
reference  in  this,  as  in  all  the  symbols  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, to  the  Old  Testament.  We  know  that  in  the 
Jewish  Temple  there  stood,  as  an  emblem  of  Israel's 
work  in  the  world,  the  great  seven-branched  candle- 
stick, burning  for  ever  before  the  veil  and  beyond  the 
altar.  The  difference  between  the  two  symbols  is 
as  obvious  as  their  resemblance.  The  ancient  lamp 
had  all  the  seven  bowls  springing  from  a  single  stem. 

M 


178  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

It  was  a  formal  unity.  The  New  Testament  seer  saw 
not  one  lamp  with  seven  arms  rising  from  one  pillar, 
but  seven  distinct  lamps — the  emblems  of  a  unity 
which  was  not  formal,  but  real.  They  were  one  in 
their  perfect  manif oldness,  because  of  Him  who  walked 
in  the  midst.  In  which  difference  lies  a  representation 
of  one  great  element  in  the  superiority  of  the  Church 
over  Israel,  that  for  the  hard  material  oneness  of  the 
separated  nation  there  has  come  the  true  spiritual 
oneness  of  the  Churches  of  the  saints  ;  one  not  because 
of  any  external  connection,  but  by  reason  that  Christ 
is  in  them.  The  seven-branched  lamp  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Tiber.  There  let  it  lie.  "We  have  a  better  thing, 
in  these  manifold  lights,  which  stand  before  the  Throne 
of  the  New  Temple,  and  blend  into  one,  because  lighted 
from  one  Source,  fed  by  one  Spirit,  tended  and  watched 
by  one  Lord. 

But  looking  a  little  more  closely  at  this  symbol,  it 
suggests  to  us  some  needful  thoughts  as  to  the  position 
and  work  of  the  Church,  which  is  set  forth  as  being 
light,  derived  light,  clustered  light. 

The  Church  is  to  be  light .  That  familiar  image,  which 
applies,  as  we  have  seen,  to  stars  and  lamps  alike, 
lends  itself  naturally  to  point  many  an  important 
lesson  as  to  what  we  have  to  do,  and  how  we  ought  to 
do  it.  Think,  for  instance,  how  spontaneously  light 
streams  forth.  '  Light  is  light,  which  circulates.'  The 
substance  which  is  lit  cannot  but  shine ;  and  if  we 
have  any  real  possession  of  the  truth,  we  cannot  but 
impart  it ;  and  if  we  have  any  real  illumination  from 
the  Lord,  who  is  the  light,  we  cannot  but  give  it  forth. 
There  is  much  good  done  in  the  world  by  direct, 
conscious  effort.  There  is  perhaps  more  done  by 
spontaneous,  unconscious  shining,  by  the  involuntary 


T.  1]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  179 

influence  of  character,  than  by  the  lip  or  the  pen.  We 
need  not  balance  the  one  form  of  usefulness  against 
the  other.  We  need  both.  But,  Christian  men  and 
women,  do  you  remember  that  from  you  a  holy  im- 
pression revealing  Jesus  ought  to  flow  as  constantly, 
as  spontaneously,  as  light  from  the  sun!  Our  lives 
should  be  like  the  costly  box  of  fragrant  ointment 
which  that  penitent,  loving  woman  lavished  on  her 
Lord,  the  sweet,  penetrating,  subtle  odour  of  which 
stole  through  all  the  air  till  the  house  was  filled.  So 
His  name,  the  revelation  of  His  love,  the  resemblance 
to  His  character,  should  breathe  forth  from  our  whole 
being ;  and  whether  we  think  of  it  or  no,  we  should  be 
unto  God  a  sweet  savour  of  Christ. 

Then  think  again  how  silent  and  gentle,  though  so 
mighty,  is  the  action  of  the  light.  Morning  by  morning 
God's  great  mercy  of  sunrise  steals  upon  a  darkened 
world  in  still,  slow,  self-impartation;  and  the  light 
which  has  a  force  that  has  carried  it  across  gulfs  of 
space  that  the  imagination  staggers  in  trying  to  con- 
ceive, yet  falls  so  gently  that  it  does  not  move  the 
petals  of  the  sleeping  flowers,  nor  hurt  the  lids  of  an 
infant's  eyes,  nor  displace  a  grain  of  dust.  Its  work  is 
mighty,  and  done  without  'speech  or  language.'  Its 
force  is  gigantic,  but,  like  its  Author,  its  gentleness 
makes  its  dependents  great.  So  should  we  live  and 
work,  clothing  all  our  power  in  tenderness,  doing  our 
work  in  quietness,  disturbing  nothing  but  the  dark- 
ness, and  with  silent  increase  of  beneficent  power  filling 
and  flooding  the  dark  earth  with  healing  beams. 

Then  think  again  that  heaven's  light  is  itself  invisible, 
and,  revealing  all  things,  reveals  not  itself.  The  source 
you  can  see,  but  not  the  beams.  So  we  are  to  shine, 
not  showing  ourselves  but  our  Master — not  coveting 


180  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

fame  or  conspicuousness— glad  if,  like  one  to  whom  He 
bore  testimony  that  he  was  a  light,  it  be  said  of  us  to 
all  that  ask  who  we  are,  *  He  was  not  that  Light,  but 
was  sent  to  bear  witness  of  that  Light,'  and  rejoicing 
without  stint  or  reservation  that  for  us,  as  for  John 
the  Baptist,  the  necessity  is,  that  we  must  decrease  and 
Christ  must  increase. 

We  may  gather  from  this  emblem  in  the  text  the 
further  lesson  that  the  Church's  light  is  derived  light. 
Two  things  are  needed  for  the  burn/mg  of  a  lamp :  that 
it  should  be  lit,  and  that  it  should  be  fed.  In  both 
respects  the  light  with  which  we  Pjhine  is  derived.  We 
ai*?  not  suns,  we  are  moons;  reflected,  not  self-origin- 
atec-  is  all  our  radiance.  That  iis  true  in  all  senses  of 
the  figCii^-'.  it  is  truest  in  the  hi^ghest.  It  is  true  about 
all  in  every  man^hich  is  of  the^  nature  of  light.  Christ 
is  the  true  light  whicti  V/^hteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world.  Whatsoever  '-^eam  of  wisdom,  whatso- 
ever ray  of  purity,  whatsoever  sunshine  of  gladness 
has  ever  been  in  any  human  spirit,  from  Him  it  came, 
who  is  the  Light  and  Life  of  men :  from  Him  it  came, 
who  brings  to  us  in  form  fitted  for  our  eyes,  that 
otherwise  inaccessible  light  of  God  in  which  alone  we 
see  light.  And  as  for  the  more  special  work  of  the 
Church  (which  chiefly  concerns  us  now),  the  testimony 
of  Christ  to  John,  which  I  have  just  quoted  in  another 
connection,  gives  us  the  principle  which  is  true  about 
all.  *He  was  not  that  light,'  the  Evangelist  said  of 
John,  denying  that  in  him  was  original  and  native 
radiance.  *  He  was  a  lamp  burning ' — where  the  idea 
is  possibly  rather  •  lighted '  or  made  to  burn — and 
therefore  shining,  and  in  whose  light  men  could  rejoice 
for  a  little  while.  A  derived  and  transient  light  is  all 
that  any  man  can  be.    In  ourselves  we  are  darkness, 


V.  1]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  181 

and  only  as  we  hold  fellowship  with  Him  do  we 
become  capable  of  giving  forth  any  rays  of  light.  The 
condition  of  all  our  brightness  is  that  Christ  shall  give 
us  light.  He  is  the  source,  we  are  but  reservoirs.  He 
the  fountain,  we  only  cisterns.  He  must  walk  amidst 
the  candlesticks,  or  they  will  never  shine.  He  must 
hold  the  stars  in  His  hand,  or  they  will  drop  from  their 
places  and  dwindle  into  darkness.  Therefore  our 
power  for  service  lies  in  reception ;  and  if  we  are  to 
live  for  Christ,  we  must  live  in  Christ. 

But  there  is  still  another  requisite  for  the  shining  ot 
the  light.  The  prophet  Zechariah  once  saw  in  vision 
the  great  Temple  lamp,  and  by  its  side  two  olive  trees 
from  which  golden  oil  flowed  through  golden  pipes  to 
the  central  light.  And  when  he  expressed  his  ignor- 
ance of  the  meaning  of  the  vision,  this  was  the  inter- 
pretation by  the  angel  who  talked  with  him  :  '  Not  by 
might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord 
of  Hosts.'  The  lamp  that  burns  must  be  kept  fed  with 
oil.  Throughout  the  Old  Testament  the  soft,  gracious 
influences  of  God's  Spirit  are  symbolised  by  oil,  with 
which  therefore  prophets,  priests,  and  kings  were 
designated  to  their  office.  Hence  the  Messiah  in  pro- 
phecy says, '  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because 
He  hath  anointed  me.'  Thus  the  lamp  too  must  be 
fed,  the  soul  which  is  to  give  forth  the  light  of  Christ 
must  first  of  all  have  been  kindled  by  Him,  and  then 
must  constantly  be  supplied  with  the  grace  and  gift  of 
His  Divine  Spirit.  Solemn  lessons,  my  friends,  gather 
round  that  thought.  What  became  of  those  who  had 
lamps  without  oil?  Their  lamps  had  gone  out,  and 
their  end  was  darkness.  Oh !  let  us  beware  lest  by 
any  sloth  and  sin  we  choke  the  golden  pipes,  through 
which  there  steals  into  our  tiny  lamps  the  soft  flow  of 


182  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

that  Divine  oil  which  alone  can  keep  up  the  flame. 
The  wick,  untrimmed  and  unfed,  may  burn  for  a  little 
while,  but  it  soon  chars,  and  smokes,  and  goes  out  at 
last  in  foul  savour  offensive  to  God  and  man.  Take 
care  lest  you  resist  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  Let  your 
loins  be  girt  and  your  lamps  burning ;  and  that  they 
may  be,  give  heed  that  the  light  caught  from  Jesus  be 
fed  by  the  pure  oil  which  alone  can  save  it  from  ex- 
tinction. 

Again,  the  text  sets  before  us  the  Church's  light  as 
blended  or  clustered  light. 

Each  of  these  little  communities  is  represented  by 
one  lamp.  And  that  one  light  is  composed  of  the 
united  brightness  of  all  the  individuals  who  constitute 
the  community.  They  are  to  have  a  character,  an 
influence,  a  work  as  a  society,  not  merely  as  indi- 
viduals. There  is  to  be  co-operation  in  service,  there  is 
to  be  mingling  of  powers,  there  is  to  be  subordination 
of  individuals  to  the  whole,  and  each  separate  man  and 
his  work  is  to  be  gladly  merged  in  the  radiance  that 
issues  from  the  community.  A  Church  is  not  to  be 
merely  a  multitude  of  separate  points  of  brilliancy, 
but  the  separate  points  are  to  coalesce  into  one  great 
orbed  brightness.  You  know  these  lights  which  we 
have  seen  in  public  places,  where  you  have  a  ring  pierced 
with  a  hundred  tiny  holes,  from  each  of  which  bursts  a 
separate  flame ;  but  when  all  are  lit,  they  run  into  one 
brilliant  circle,  and  lose  their  separateness  in  the 
rounded  completeness  of  the  blended  blaze.  That  is 
like  what  Christ's  Church  ought  to  be.  We  each  by 
our  own  personal  contact  with  Him,  by  our  individual 
communion  with  our  Saviour,  become  light  in  the 
Lord,  and  yet  we  joyfully  blend  with  our  brethren, 
and,  fused  into  one,  give  forth  our  mingled  light.    We 


T.l]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  183 

unite  our  voices  to  theirs,  knowing  that  all  are  needed 
to  send  out  the  Church's  choral  witness  and  to  hymn 
the  Church's  full-toned  praise.  The  lips  of  the  multi- 
tude thunder  out  harmony,  before  which  the  melody  of 
the  richest  and  sweetest  single  voice  is  thin  and  poor. 

Union  of  heart,  union  of  effort  is  commended  to  us 
by  this  symbol  of  our  text.  The  great  law  is,  work 
together  if  you  would  work  with  strength.  To  separate 
ourselves  from  our  brethren  is  to  lose  power.  Why, 
half-dead  brands  heaped  close  will  kindle  one  another, 
and  flame  will  sparkle  beneath  the  film  of  white  ashes 
on  their  edges.  Fling  them  apart  and  they  go  out. 
Rake  them  together  and  they  glow.  Let  us  try  not  to 
be  little  feeble  tapers,  stuck  in  separate  sockets,  and 
each  twinkling  struggling  rays  over  some  inch  or  so  of 
space ;  but  draw  near  to  our  brethren,  and  be  workers 
together  with  them,  that  there  may  rise  a  glorious 
flame  from  our  summed  and  collective  brightness 
which  shall  be  a  guide  and  hospitable  call  to  many  a 
wandering  and  weary  spirit. 

III.  Finally,  the  text  shows  us  the  Churches  and  their 
Lord. 

He  it  is  who  holds  the  stars  in  His  right  hand,  and 
walks  among  the  candlesticks.  That  strong  grasp  of 
that  mighty  hand — for  the  word  in  the  original  conveys 
more  than  '  holds,'  it  implies  a  tight  and  powerful  grip 
— sustains  and  guards  His  servants,  whose  tasks  need 
special  grace,  and  whose  position  exposes  them  to 
special  dangers.  They  may  be  of  good  cheer,  for  none 
shall  pluck  them  out  of  His  hand.  That  strengthening 
and  watchful  presence  moves  among  His  Churches, 
and  is  active  on  their  behalf.  The  symbols  are  but  the 
pictorial  equivalent  of  His  own  parting  promise, '  Lo,  I 
am  with  you  always  ! ' 


184  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

That  presence  is  a  plain  literal  fact,  however  feebly 
we  lay  hold  of  it.  It  is  not  to  be  watered  down  into  a 
strong  expression  for  the  abiding  influence  of  Christ's 
teaching  or  example,  nor  even  to  mean  the  constant 
benefits  which  flow  to  us  from  His  work,  nor  the  pre- 
sence of  His  loving  thoughts  with  us.  All  these  things 
are  true  and  blessed,  but  none  of  them,  nor  all  of  them 
taken  together,  reach  to  the  height  of  this  great  pro- 
mise. He  is  absent  in  body,  He  is  present  in  person. 
Talk  of  a  '  real  presence  ' !  This  is  the  real  presence  : 
'  I  will  not  leave  you  orphans,  I  will  come  unto  you.' 
Through  all  the  ages,  in  every  land  wheresoever  two 
or  three  are  gathered  in  His  name,  there  is  He  in  the 
midst  of  them.  The  presence  of  Christ  with  His 
Church  is  analogous  to  the  Divine  presence  in  the 
material  universe.  As  in  it,  the  presence  of  God  is  the 
condition  of  all  life ;  and  if  He  were  not  here,  there 
were  no  beings  and  no  '  here ' :  so  in  the  Church,  Christ's 
presence  constitutes  and  sustains  it,  and  without  Him 
it  would  cease.  So  St.  Augustine  says, '  Where  Christ, 
there  the  Church.' 

I  know  what  wild  absurdities  these  statements 
appear  to  many  men  who  have  no  faith  in  the  true 
Divinity  of  our  Lord.  Of  course  the  belief  of  His 
perpetual  presence  with  His  people  implies  the  belief 
that  He  possesses  Divine  attributes.  This  mysterious 
Person,  who  lived  among  men  the  exemplar  of  all 
humility,  departing,  leaves  a  promise  which  is  either 
the  very  acme  of  insane  arrogance,  or  comes  from  the 
consciousness  of  indwelling  Divinity.  He  declares 
that,  from  generation  to  generation.  He  will  in  very 
deed  bo  with  all  who  in  every  place  call  upon  His 
name.     Who  does  He  thereby  claim  to  be  ? 

For  what  purpose  is  He  there  with  His  Churches? 


T.l]  THE  SEVEN  STARS  185 

The  text  assures  us  that  it  is  to  hold  up  and  to  bless. 
His  unwearied  hand  sustains,  His  unceasing  activity 
moves  among  them.  But  beyond  these  purposes,  or 
rather  included  in  them,  the  vision  of  which  the  text 
is  the  interpretation  brings  into  great  prominence  the 
thought  that  He  is  with  us  to  observe,  to  judge,  and,  if 
need  be,  to  punish.  Mark  how  almost  all  the  attributes 
of  that  majestic  figure  suggest  such  thoughts.  The 
eyes  like  a  flame  of  fire,  the  feet  glowing  as  if  in  a 
furnace,  hot  to  burn,  heavy  to  tread  down  all  evil 
where  He  walks,  from  the  lips  a  two-edged  sword  to 
smite,  and,  thank  God,  to  heal,  the  countenance  as  the 
sun  shineth  in  his  strength — this  is  the  Lord  of  the 
Churches.  Yes,  and  this  is  the  same  loving  and  for- 
bearing Lord  whom  the  Apostle  had  learned  to  trust 
on  earth,  and  found  again  revealed  from  heaven. 

Brethren !  He  dwells  with  us ;  He  guards  and  pro- 
tects His  Churches  to  the  end,  else  they  perish.  He 
rules  all  the  commotions  of  earth,  all  the  errors  of  His 
people,  all  the  delusions  of  lies,  and  overrules  them  all 
for  the  strengthening  and  purifying  of  His  Church. 
But  He  dwells  with  us  likewise  as  the  watchful 
observer,  out  of  these  eyes  of  flame,  of  all  our  faults ;  as 
the  merciful  destroyer,  with  the  sword  of  His  mouth, 
of  every  error  and  every  sin.  Thank  God  for  the 
chastising  presence  of  Christ.  He  loves  us  too  well 
not  to  smite  us  when  we  need  it.  He  will  not  be  so 
cruelly  kind,  so  foolishly  fond,  as  in  anywise  to  suffer 
Bin  upon  us.  Better  the  eye  of  fire  than  the  averted 
face.  Better  the  sharp  sword  than  His  holding  His 
peace  as  He  did  with  Caiaphas  and  Herod.  Better  the 
Judge  in  our  midst,  though  we  should  have  to  fall  at 
His  feet  as  dead,  than  that  He  should  say,  'I  will  go 
and  return  to  My  place.*    Pray  Him  not  to  depart,  and 


186  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

submit  to  the  merciful  rebukes  and  effectual  chastise- 
ment which  prove  that,  for  all  our  unworthiness,  Ho 
loves  us  still,  and  has  not  cast  us  away  from  His 
presence. 

Nor  let  us  forget  how  much  of  hope  and  encourage- 
ment lies  in  the  examples,  which  these  seven  Churches 
afford,  of  His  long-suffering  patience.  That  presence 
was  granted  to  them  all,  the  best  and  the  worst — the 
decaying  love  of  Ephesus,  the  licentious  heresies  of 
Pergamos  and  Thyatira,  the  all  but  total  deadness  of 
Sardis,  and  the  self-satisfied  indifference  of  Laodicea, 
concerning  which  even  He  could  say  nothing  that  was 
good.  All  had  Him  with  them  as  really  as  the  faithful 
Smyrna  and  the  steadfast  Philadelphia.  We  have  no 
right  to  say  with  how  much  of  theoretical  error  and 
practical  sin  the  lingering  presence  of  that  patient  pity- 
ing Lord  may  consist.  For  others  our  duty  is  the  widest 
charity  —  for  ourselves  the  most  careful  watchful- 
ness. 

For  these  seven  Churches  teach  us  another  lesson — 
the  possibility  of  quenched  lamps  and  ruined  shrines. 
Ephesus  and  her  sister  communities,  planted  by  Paul, 
taught  by  John,  loved  and  upheld  by  the  Lord,  warned 
and  scourged  by  Him — where  are  they  now  ?  Broken 
columns  and  roofless  walls  remain ;  and  where  Christ's 
name  was  praised,  now  the  minaret  rises  by  the  side  of 
the  mosque,  and  daily  echoes  the  Chris  tless  proclama- 
tion, '  There  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Mahomet  is  His 
prophet.'  '  The  grace  of  God,'  says  Luther  somewhere, 
'is  like  a  flying  summer  shower.'  It  has  fallen  upon 
more  than  one  land,  and  passed  on.  Judaea  had  it,  and 
lies  barren  and  dry.  These  Asiatic  coasts  had  it  and 
flung  it  away.  Let  us  receive  it,  and  hold  it  fast,  lest 
our  greater  light  should  bring  greater  condemnation, 


v.l]      I.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-FOOD       187 

and  here,  too,  the  candlestick  should  be  removed  out 
of  its  place. 

Remember  that  solemn,  strange  legend  which  tells  us 
that,  on  the  night  before  Jerusalem  fell,  the  guard  of 
the  Temple  heard  through  the  darkness  a  voice  mighty 
and  sad,  saying,  *  Let  us  depart,'  and  were  aware  as  of 
the  sound  of  many  wings  passing  from  out  of  the  Holy 
Place ;  and  on  the  morrow  the  iron  heels  of  the  Roman 
legionaries  trod  the  marble  pavement  of  the  innermost 
shrine,  and  heathen  eyes  gazed  upon  the  empty  place 
where  the  glory  of  the  God  of  Israel  should  have  dwelt, 
and  a  torch,  flung  by  an  unknown  hand,  burned  with 
fire  the  holy  and  beautiful  house  where  He  had 
promised  to  put  His  name  for  ever.  And  let  us  learn 
the  lesson,  and  hold  fast  by  that  Lord  whose  blood  has 
purchased,  and  whose  presence  preserves  through  all 
the  unworthiness  and  the  lapses  of  men,  that  Church 
against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail. 


L~THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-FOOD 

*.  .  .  To  him  that  ororcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which  is  in 
the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God.'— Rev.  il.  7. 

The  sevenfold  promises  which  conclude  the  seven 
letters  to  the  Asiatic  Churches,  of  which  this  is  the 
first,  are  in  substance  one.  We  may,  indeed,  say  that 
the  inmost  moaning  of  them  all  is  the  gift  of  Christ 
Himself.  But  the  diamond  flashes  variously  coloured 
lights  according  to  the  angle  at  which  it  is  held,  and 
breaks  into  red  and  green  and  white.  The  one  great 
thought  may  be  looked  at  from  different  points  of 
view,  and  sparkle  into  diversely  splendid  rays.  The 
reality  is  single  and  simple,  but  so  great  that  our  best 


188  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

way  of  approximating  to  the  apprehension  of  that 
which  we  shall  never  comprehend  till  we  possess  it  is 
to  blend  various  conceptions  and  metaphors  drawn 
from  different  sources, 

I  have  a  strong  conviction  that  the  Christianity  of 
this  day  suffers,  intellectually  and  practically,  from  its 
comparative  neglect  of  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  to  the  future  life.  We  hear  and  think  a  great 
deal  less  about  it  than  was  once  the  case,  and  we  are 
thereby  deprived  of  a  strong  motive  for  action,  and  a 
sure  comfort  in  sorrow.  Some  of  us  may,  perhaps,  be 
disposed  to  look  with  a  little  sense  of  lofty  pity  at 
the  simple  people  who  let  the  hope  of  heaven  spur,  or 
restrain,  or  console.  But  if  there  is  a  future  life  at  all, 
and  if  the  characteristic  of  it  which  most  concerns  us  is 
that  it  is  the  reaping,  in  consequences,  of  the  acts  of 
the  present,  surely  it  cannot  be  such  superior  wisdom, 
as  it  sometimes  pretends  to  be,  to  ignore  it  altogether ; 
and  perhaps  the  simplicity  of  the  said  people  is  more 
in  accordance  with  the  highest  reason  than  is  our 
attitude. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  believing,  as  I  do,  that  the  hope  of 
immortality  is  meant  to  fill  a  very  large  place  in  the 
Christian  life,  and  fearing,  as  I  do,  that  it  actually  does 
fill  but  a  very  small  one  with  many  of  us,  I  have  thought 
that  it  might  do  us  all  good  to  turn  to  this  wealth  of 
linked  promises  and  to  consider  them  in  succession,  so 
as  to  bring  our  hearts  for  a  little  while  into  contact 
with  the  motive  for  brave  fighting  which  does  occupy 
so  large  a  space  in  the  New  Testament,  however  it  may 
fail  to  do  so  in  our  lives. 

I.  I  ask  you  to  look  first  at  the  Gift. 

Now,  of  course,  I  need  scarcely  remind  you  that  this 
first  promise,  in  the  last  book  of  Scripture,  goes  back 


V.  7]      I.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-FOOD       189 

to  the  beginning,  to  the  old  story  in  Genesis  about 
Paradise  and  the  Tree  of  Life.  We  may  distinguish 
between  the  substance  of  the  promise  and  the  highly 
metaphorical  form  into  which  it  is  here  cast.  The 
substance  of  the  promise  is  the  communication  of  life  ; 
the  form  is  a  poetic  and  imaginative  and  pregnant 
allusion  to  the  story  on  the  earliest  pages  of  Revela- 
tion. 

Let  me  deal  first  with  the  substance.  Now  it  seems 
to  me  that  if  we  are  to  pare  down  this  word  '  life '  to 
its  merely  physical  sense  of  continuous  existence,  this 
is  not  a  promise  that  a  man's  heart  leaps  up  at  the 
hearing  of.  To  anybody  that  will  honestly  think,  and 
try  to  realise,  in  the  imperfect  fashion  in  which  alone 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  realise  it,  that  notion  of  an 
absolutely  interminable  continuance  of  being,  its 
awfulness  is  far  more  than  its  blessedness,  and  it 
overwhelms  a  man.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  'crown 
of  life,'  if  life  only  means  conscious  existence,  would 
be  a  crown  of  thorns  indeed. 

No,  brethren,  what  our  hearts  crave,  and  what 
Christ's  heart  gives,  is  not  the  mere  bare,  bald,  con- 
tinuance of  conscious  being.  It  is  something  far  deeper 
than  that.  That  is  the  substratum,  of  course ;  but  it 
is  only  the  substratum,  and  not  until  we  let  in  upon 
this  word,  which  is  one  of  the  key-words  of  Scripture, 
the  full  flood  of  light  that  comes  to  it  from  John's 
Gospel,  and  its  use  on  the  Master's  lips  there,  do  we  begin 
to  understand  the  meaning  of  this  great  promise. 
Just  as  we  say  of  men  who  are  sunk  in  gross  animal- 
ism, or  whose  lives  are  devoted  to  trivial  and  transient 
aims,  that  theirs  is  not  worth  calling  life,  so  we  say 
that  the  only  thing  that  deserves,  and  that  in  Scripture 
gets,  the  august  name  of  *  life,'  is  a  condition  of  exist- 


190  REV^ELATION  [ch.ii. 

ence  in  conscious  union  with,  and  possession  of,  God, 
who  is  manifested  and  communicated  to  mortals 
through  Jesus  Christ  His  Son.  *  In  Him  was  life,  and 
the  life  was  manifested.'  Was  that  bare  existence? 
And  the  life  was  not  only  manifested  but  communi- 
cated, and  the  essence  of  it  is  fellowship  with  God 
through  Jesus  Christ.  The  possession  of  *  the  Spirit 
of  life  which  was  in  Christ,'  and  which  in  heaven  will 
be  perfectly  communicated,  will  make  men  'free,'  as 
they  never  can  be  upon  earth  whilst  implicated  in 
the  bodily  life  of  this  material  world,  *  from  the  law  of 
sin  and  death.'  The  gift  that  Christ  bestows  on  him 
that  '  overcometh '  is  not  only  conscious  existence,  but 
existence  derived  from,  and,  so  to  speak,  embraided 
with  the  life  of  God  Himself,  and  therefore  blessed. 

For  such  a  life,  in  union  with  God  in  Christ,  is  the 
only  condition  in  which  all  a  man's  capacities  find 
their  fitting  objects,  and  all  his  activity  finds  its 
appropriate  sphere,  and  in  which,  therefore,  to  live 
is  to  be  blessed,  because  the  heart  is  united  with  the 
source  and  fountain  of  all  blessedness.  Here  is  the 
deepest  depth  of  that  promise  of  future  blessedness. 
It  is  not  mainly  because  of  any  changes,  glorious  as 
these  must  necessarily  be,  which  follow  upon  the 
dropping  away  of  flesh,  and  the  transportation  into 
the  light  that  is  above,  that  heaven  is  a  place  of 
blessedness,  but  it  is  because  the  saints  that  are  there 
are  joined  to  God,  and  into  their  recipient  hearts 
there  pours  for  ever  the  fulness  of  the  Divine  life. 
That  makes  the  glory  and  the  blessedness. 

But  let  us  remember  that  all  which  can  come  here- 
after of  that  full  and  perfect  life  is  but  the  con- 
tinuance, the  development,  the  increase,  of  that 
which  already  is  possessed.    Here  it  fi.Aa  in  drops; 


V.7]      I.— THE  VICTORS  LIFE-FOOD       191 

there  in  floods.  Here  it  is  filtered;  there  poured. 
Here,  the  plant,  taken  from  its  native  climate  and  soil, 
puts  forth  some  pale  blossoms,  and  grows  but  to  a 
stunted  height ;  there,  set  in  their  deep  native  soil, 
and  shone  upon  by  a  more  fervent  sun,  and  watered 
by  more  abundant  warm  rains  and  dews,  *  they  that ' 
on  earth  *  were  planted  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  shall, 
transplanted,  '  flourish  in  the  courts  of  our  God.'  The 
life  of  the  Christian  soul  on  earth  and  of  the  Christian 
soul  in  heaven  is  continuous,  and  though  there  is  a 
break  to  our  consciousness  looking  from  this  side — the 
break  of  death — the  reality  is  that  without  interrup- 
tion, and  without  a  turn,  the  road  runs  on  in  the  same 
direction.  We  begin  to  live  the  life  of  heaven  here, 
and  they  who  can  say,  *  I  was  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  but  the  life  which  I  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by 
the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,'  have  already  the  germs  of 
the  furthest  development  in  the  heavens  in  their 
hearts. 

Notice,  for  a  moment,  the  form  that  this  great 
promise  assumes  here.  That  is  a  very  pregnant  and 
significant  reference  to  the  Tree  of  Life  in  the  paradise 
of  God,  The  old  story  tells  how  the  cherub  with  the 
flaming  sword  was  set  to  guard  the  way  to  it.  And 
that  paradise  upon  earth  faded  and  disappeared.  But 
it  reappears.  '  Then  comes  a  statelier  Eden  back  to 
man,'  for  Jesus  Christ  is  the  restorer  of  all  lost 
blessings;  and  the  Divine  purpose  and  ideal  has  not 
faded  away  amidst  the  clouds  of  the  stormy  day  of 
earth's  history,  like  the  flush  of  morning  from  off  the 
plains.  Christ  brings  back  the  Eden,  and  quenches  the 
flame  of  the  fiery  sword ;  and  instead  of  the  repellent 
cherub,  there  stands  Himself  with  the  merciful  invita- 
tion upon  His  lips  :  *  Come !    Eat ;  and  live  for  ever.' 


192  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

*  There  never  was  one  lost  good ;  what  was  shall  live  as  before. 
•  ••••• 

On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs  ;  in  heaven  the  perfect  round.' 

Eden  shall  come  back ;  and  the  paradise  into  which  the 
victors  go  is  richer  and  fuller,  by  all  their  conflict  and 
their  wounds,  than  ever  could  have  been  the  simpler 
paradise  of  which  souls  innocent,  because  untried,  could 
have  been  capable.    So  much  for  the  gift  of  life. 

II.  Notice,  secondly,  the  Giver. 

This  is  a  majestic  utterance ;  worthy  of  coming  from 
the  majestic  Figure  portrayed  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book.  In  it  Jesus  Christ  claims  to  be  the  Arbiter 
of  men's  deserts  and  Giver  of  their  rewards.  That  in- 
volves His  judicial  function,  and  therefore  His  Divine 
as  well  as  human  nature.  I  accept  these  words  as 
truly  His  words.  Of  course,  if  you  do  not,  my  present 
remarks  have  no  force  for  you ;  but  if  you  do  not,  you 
ought  to  be  very  sure  of  your  reasons  for  not  doing  so ; 
and  if  you  do,  then  I  see  not  how  any  man  who  believes 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  said  that  He  will  give  to  all  the 
multitude  of  faithful  fighters,  who  have  brought  their 
shields  out  of  the  battle,  and  their  swords  undinted, 
the  gift  of  life  eternal,  can  be  vindicated  from  the 
charge  of  taking  too  much  upon  him,  except  on  the 
belief  of  His  Divine  nature. 

But  I  observe,  still  further,  that  this  great  utterance 
of  the  Lord's,  paralleled  in  all  the  other  six  promises, 
in  all  of  which  He  is  represented  as  the  bestower  of  the 
reward,  whatever  it  may  be,  involves  another  thing, 
viz.,  the  eternal  continuance  of  Christ's  relation  to 
men  as  the  Revealer  and  Mediator  of  God.  '  I  will 
give ' — and  that  not  only  when  the  victor  crosses  the 
threshold  and  enters  the  Capitol  of  the  heavens,  but  all 
through  its  ceaseless  ages  Christ  is  the  Medium  by  which 


V.7]      l.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-FOOD       193 

the  Divine  life  passes  into  men.  True,  there  is  a  sense 
in  which  He  shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  His  Father, 
when  the  partial  end  of  the  present  dispensation  has 
come.  But  He  is  the  Priest  of  mankind  for  ever ;  and 
for  ever  is  His  kingdom  enduring.  And  through  all 
the  endless  ages,  which  we  have  a  right  to  hope  we 
shall  see,  there  will  never  come  a  point  in  which  it  will 
not  remain  as  true  as  it  is  at  this  moment :  '  No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  nor  can  see  Him ;  the  only 
begotten  Son,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He 
hath  declared  Him.'  Christ  is  for  ever  the  Giver  of 
life  in  the  heavens  as  on  earth. 

Another  thing  is  involved  which  I  think  also  is  often 
lost  sight  of.  The  Bible  does  not  know  anything 
about  what  people  call  'natural  immortality.*  Life 
here  is  not  given  to  the  infant  once  for  all,  and  then 
expended  through  the  years,  but  it  is  continually  being 
bestowed.  My  belief  is  that  no  worm  that  creeps,  nor 
angel  that  soars,  nor  any  of  the  beings  between,  is 
alive  for  one  instant  except  for  the  continual  com- 
munication from  the  fountain  of  life,  of  the  life  that 
they  live.  And  still  more  certainly  is  it  true  about 
the.  future,  that  there  all  the  blessedness  and  the  exist- 
ence, which  is  the  substratum  and  condition  of  the 
blessedness,  are  only  ours  because,  wavelet  by  wavelet, 
throbbing  out  as  from  a  central  fountain,  there  flows 
into  the  Redeemed  a  life  communicated  by  Christ  Him- 
self. If  I  might  so  say — were  that  continual  bestow- 
ment  to  cease,  then  heaven,  like  the  vision  of  a  fairy 
tale,  would  fade  away;  and  there  would  be  nothing 
left  where  the  glory  had  shone.  •  I  will  give '  through 
eternity. 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  Recipients. 

•To  him  that  overcometh.'    Now  I  need  not  say,  in 

N 


194  REVELATION  [en.  ii. 

more  than  a  sentence,  that  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
fair  interpretation  of  this  promise,  as  of  all  the  other 
references  in  Scripture  to  the  future  life,  is  that  the 
reward  is  immediately  consequent  upon  the  cessation 
of  the  struggle.  '  To  depart '  is  *  to  be  with  Christ,'  and 
to  be  with  Christ,  in  regard  of  a  spirit  which  has 
passed  from  the  bodily  environment,  is  to  be  conscious 
of  His  presence,  and  lapt  in  His  robe,  feeling  the 
warmth  and  the  pressure  of  His  heart.  So  I  believe 
that  Scripture  teaches  us  that  at  one  moment  there 
may  be  the  clash  of  battle,  and  the  whiz  of  the  arrows 
round  one's  head,  and  next  moment  there  may  be  the 
laurel-crowned  quiet  of  the  victor. 

But  that  does  not  enter  so  much  into  our  con- 
sideration now.  We  have,  rather,  here  to  think  of  just 
this  one  thing,  that  the  gift  is  given  to  the  victor  because 
only  the  victor  is  capable  of  receiving  it ;  that  future 
life,  interpreted  as  I  have  ventured  to  interpret  it  in 
this  sermon,  is  no  arbitrary  bestowment  that  could  be 
dealt  all  round  miscellaneously  to  everybody,  if  the 
Giver  chose  so  to  give.  Here  on  earth  many  gifts  are 
bestowed  upon  men,  and  are  neglected  by  them,  and 
wasted  like  water  spilled  upon  the  ground;  but  this 
elixir  of  life  is  not  poured  out  so.  It  is  only  poured 
into  vessels  that  can  take  it  in  and  hold  it. 

Our  present  struggle  is  meant  to  make  us  capable  of 
the  heavenly  life.  And  that  is — I  was  going  to  say  the 
only,  but  at  all  events — incomparably  the  chief  est,  of 
the  thoughts  which  make  life  not  only  worth  living, 
but  great  and  solemn.  Go  into  a  mill,  and  in  a  quiet 
room,  often  detached  from  the  main  building,  you  will 
find  the  engine  working,  and  seeming  to  do  nothing 
but  go  up  and  down.  But  there  is  a  shaft  which  goes 
through  the  wall  and  takes  the  power  to  the  looms. 


V.  7]      I.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-FOOD       195 

We  are  working  here,  and  we  are  making  the  cloth 
that  we  shall  have  to  own  and  say,  *  Yes,  it  is  my 
manufacture!'  when  we  get  yonder.  According  to 
our  life  to-day  will  be  our  destiny  in  the  great  to- 
morrow. Life  is  given  to  the  victor,  because  the  victor 
only  is  capable  of  possessing  it. 

But  the  victor  can  only  conquer  in  one  way.  *  This,' 
said  John,  when  he  was  not  an  apocalyptic  seer,  but  a 
Christian  teacher  to  the  Churches  of  Asia,  *  this  is  the 
victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith.' 
If  we  trust  in  Christ  we  shall  get  His  power  into  our 
hearts,  and  if  we  get  His  power  into  our  hearts,  then 
*  we  shall  be  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  that 
loved  us.'  Christ  gives  life  eternal,  gives  it  here  in 
germ  and  yonder  in  fulness.  In  its  fulness  only  those 
who  overcome  are  capable  of  receiving  it.  Those  only 
who  fight  the  good  fight  by  His  help  overcome.  Those 
only  who  trust  in  Him  fight  the  good  fight  by  His  help. 
He  gives  to  eat  of  the  Tree  of  Life  ;  He  gives  it  to  faith, 
but  faith  must  be  militant.  He  gives  it  to  the  con- 
queror, but  the  conqueror  must  win  by  faith  in  Him 
who  overcame  the  world  for  us,  who  will  help  us  to 
overcome  the  world  by  Him. 

Help  us,  O  our  God,  we  beseech  Thee;  'teach  our 
hands  to  war,  and  our  fingers  to  fight.'  Give  us  grace 
to  hold  fast  by  the  life  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
living  by  Him  the  lives  which  we  live  in  the  flesh,  may 
we  be  capable,  by  the  discipline  of  earth's  sorrows,  of 
that  rest  and  fuller  *life  which  remaineth  for  the 
people  of  God.* 


II.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-CROWN 

* ...  He  that  overcometb  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  aeoond  death.'— Rev.  11. 11. 

Two  of  the  seven  Churches,  viz.,  Smyrna,  to  which 
our  text  is  addressed,  and  Philadelphia — offered  no- 
thing, to  the  pure  eyes  of  Christ,  that  needed  rebuke. 
The  same  two,  and  these  only,  were  warned  to  expect 
persecution.  The  higher  the  tone  of  Christian  life  in 
the  Church,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  attract  dislike  and, 
if  circumstances  permit,  hostility.  Hence  the  whole 
gist  of  this  letter  is  to  encourage  to  steadfastness,  even 
if  the  penalty  is  death. 

That  purpose  determined  at  once  the  aspect  of  Christ 
which  is  presented  in  the  beginning,  and  the  aspect  of 
future  blessedness  which  is  held  forth  at  the  close.  The 
aspect  of  Christ  is — •  these  things  saith  the  First  and 
the  Last,  which  was  dead  and  is  alive';  a  fitting 
thought  to  encourage  the  men  who  were  to  be  called 
upon  to  die  for  Him.  And,  in  like  manner,  the  words 
of  our  text  naturally  knit  themselves  with  the  previous 
mention  of  death  as  the  penalty  of  the  Smyrneans' 
faithfulness. 

Now  this  promise  is  sharply  distinguished  from  those 
to  the  other  Churches  by  two  peculiarities :  one,  that  it 
is  merely  negative,  whilst  all  the  rest  are  radiantly 
positive ;  the  other,  that  there  is  no  mention  of  our 
Lord  in  it,  whilst  in  all  the  others  He  stands  forth  with 
His  emphatic  and  majestic  '  /  will  give ' ;  *  /  will  write 
upon  him  My  new  Name';  '/will  make  him  a  pillar  in 
the  temple  of  My  God.'  The  first  peculiarity  may 
partially  account  for  the  second,  because  the  Giver  is 
naturally  more   prominent  in  a  promise  of  positive 

196 


T.ll]  II.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-CROWN  197 

gifts,  than  in  one  of  a  merely  negative  exemption.  But 
another  reason  is  to  be  found  for  the  omission  of  the 
mention  of  our  Lord  in  this  promise.  If  you  will  refer 
to  the  verse  immediately. preceding  my  text,  you  will 
find  the  missing  positive  promise  with  the  missing 
reference  to  Jesus  Christ :  '  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of 
life.'  So  that  we  are  naturally  led  to  link  together 
both  these  statements  when  taking  account  of  the 
hopes  that  were  held  forth  to  animate  the  Christians 
of  Smyrna  in  the  prospect  of  persecution  even  to  the 
death;  and  we  have  to  consider  them  both  in  conjunc- 
tion now.  I  think  I  shall  best  do  so  by  simply  asking 
you  to  look  at  these  two  things  :  the  Christian  motive 
contained  in  the  victor's  immunity  from  a  great  evil, 
and  the  Christian  motive  contained  in  the  victor's 
possession  of  a  great  good.  •  He  shall  not  be  hurt  of 
the  second  death.*    *  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life.' 

I.  The  Christian  motive  contained  in  the  victor's 
immunity  from  a  great  evil. 

Now  that  solemn  and  thrilling  expression  *  the  second 
death '  is  peculiar  to  this  book  of  the  Apocalypse.  The 
name  is  peculiar  ;  the  thing  is  common  to  all  the  New 
Testament  writers.  Here  it  comes  with  especial  appro- 
priateness, in  contrast  with  the  physical  death  which 
was  about  to  be  inflicted  upon  some  members  of  the 
Smyrnean  Church.  But  beyond  that  there  lies  in  the 
phrase  a  very  solemn  and  universally  applicable  mean- 
ing. I  do  not  feel,  dear  brethren,  that  such  a  thing 
ought  to  be  made  matter  of  pulpit  rhetoric.  The  bare 
vagueness  of  it  seems  to  me  to  shake  the  heart  a  great 
deal  more  than  any  weakening  expansion  of  it  that  we 
can  give. 

But  yet,  let  me  say  one  word.  Then,  behind  that  grim 
figure,  the  shadow  feared  of  man  that  waits  for  all  at 


198  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

some  turn  of  their  road,  cloaked  and  shrouded,  there 
rises  a  still  grimmer  and  more  awful  form, '  if  form  it 
can  be  called  which  form  hath  none.'  There  is  some- 
thing, at  the  back  of  physical  death,  which  can  lay  its 
grip  upon  the  soul  that  is  already  separated  from  the 
body ;  something  running  on  the  same  lines  somehow, 
and  worthy  to  bear  that  name  of  terror  and  disintegra- 
tion— *the  second  death.'  What  can  it  be?  Not  the 
cessation  of  conscious  existence ;  that  is  never  the 
meaning  of  death.  But  let  us  apply  the  key  which 
opens  so  many  of  the  locks  of  the  New  Testament  say- 
ings about  the  future  that  the  true  and  deepest  mean- 
ing of  death  is  separation  from  Him  who  is  the  fountain 
of  life,  and  in  a  very  deep  sense  is  the  only  life  of  the 
universe.  Separation  from  God  ;  that  is  death.  What 
touches  the  surface  of  mere  bodily  life  is  but  a  faint 
shadow  and  parable,  and  the  second  death,  like  a  second 
tier  of  mountains,  rises  behind  and  above  it,  sterner 
and  colder  than  the  lower  hills  of  the  foreground. 
What  desolation,  what  unrest,  what  blank  misgivings, 
what  pealing  off  of  capacities,  faculties,  opportunities, 
delights,  may  be  involved  in  that  solemn  conception, 
we  never  can  tell  here — God  grant  that  we  may  never 
know !  Like  some  sea-creature,  cast  high  and  dry  on 
the  beach,  and  gasping  out  its  pained  being,  the  men 
that  are  separated  from  God  die  whilst  they  live,  and 
live  a  living  death.  The  second  is  the  comparative 
degree,  of  which  the  first  is  the  positive. 

Now  note  again  that  immunity  from  this  solemn 
fate  is  no  small  part  of  the  victor's  blessedness.  At 
first  sight  we  feel  as  if  the  mere  negative  promise  of 
my  text  stands  on  a  lower  level  than  what  I  have  called 
the  radiantly  positive  ones  in  the  other  letters ;  but 
it  is  worthy  to  stand  beside  these.    Gather  them  to- 


v.ii]   II.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-CROWN   199 

gether,  and  think  of  how  manifold  and  glorious  the 
dim  suggestions  which  they  make  of  felicity  and  pro- 
gress are,  and  then  set  by  the  side  of  them  this  one  of 
our  text  as  worthy  to  stand  there.  To  eat  of  the  Tree 
of  Life ;  to  have  power  over  the  nations ;  to  rule  them 
with  a  rod  of  iron ;  to  blaze  with  the  brightness  of  the 
morning  star ;  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna  ;  to  bear  the 
new  name  known  only  to  those  who  receive  it ;  to  have 
that  name  confessed  before  the  Father  and  His  angels  ; 
to  be  a  pillar  in  the  Temple  of  the  Lord ;  to  go  no 
more  out ;  and  to  sit  with  Christ  on  His  throne : — these 
are  the  positive  promises,  along  with  which  this  barely 
negative  one  is  linked,  and  is  worthy  to  be  linked : 
*  He  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death.' 

If  this  immunity  from  that  fate  is  fit  to  stand  in 
line  with  these  glimpses  of  an  inconceivable  glory,  how 
solemn  must  be  the  fate,  and  how  real  the  danger  of  our 
falling  into  it  I  Brethren,  in  this  day  it  has  become 
unfashionable  to  speak  of  that  future,  especially  of  its 
sterner  aspects.  The  dimness  of  the  brightest  revela- 
tions in  the  New  Testament,  the  unwillingness  to  accept 
it  as  the  source  of  certitude  with  regard  to  the  future, 
the  recoil  from  the  stern  severity  of  Divine  retribution, 
the  exaggerated  and  hideous  guise  in  which  that  great 
truth  was  often  presented  in  the  past,  the  abounding 
worldliness  of  this  day,  many  of  its  best  tendencies  and 
many  of  its  worst  ones  concur  in  making  some  of  us 
look  with  very  little  interest,  and  scarcely  credence,  at 
the  solemn  words  of  which  the  New  Testament  is  full. 
But  I,  for  my  part,  accept  them ;  and  I  dare  not  but, 
in  such  proportion  to  the  rest  of  revelation  as  seems  to 
me  to  be  right,  bring  them  before  you.  I  beseech  you, 
recognise  the  solemn  teaching  that  lies  in  this  thought, 
that  this  negati  ve  promise  of  immunity  from  the  second 


200  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

death  stands  parallel  with  all  these  promises  of  felicity 
and  blessedness. 

Further,  note  that  such  immunity  is  regarded  here 
as  the  direct  outcome  of  the  victor's  conduct  and  char- 
acter. I  have  already  pointed  out  the  peculiarities 
marking  our  text.  The  omission  of  any  reference  to  our 
Lord  in  it  is  accounted  for,  as  suggested,  by  that  refer- 
ence occurring  in  the  immediately  preceding  context, 
but  it  may  also  be  regarded  as  suggesting — when  con- 
sidered in  contrast  with  the  other  promises,  where  He 
stands  forward  as  the  giver  of  heavenly  blessedness — 
that  that  future  condition  is  to  be  regarded  not  only  as 
retribution,  which  implies  the  notion  of  a  judge,  and 
a  punitive  or  rewarding  energy  on  his  part,  but  also 
as  being  the  necessary  result  of  the  earthly  life  that  is 
lived  ;  a  harvest  of  which  we  sow  the  seeds  here. 

Transient  deeds  consolidate  into  permanent  character. 
Beds  of  sandstone  rock,  thousands  of  feet  thick,  are  the 
sediment  dropped  from  vanished  seas,  or  borne  down 
by  long  dried-up  rivers.  The  actions  which  we  often 
so  unthinkingly  perform,  whatever  may  be  the  width 
and  the  permanency  of  their  effects  external  to  us, 
react  upon  ourselves,  and  tend  to  make  our  permanent 
bent  or  twist  or  character.  The  chalk  cliffs  at  Dover 
are  the  skeletons  of  millions  upon  millions  of  tiny 
organisms,  and  our  little  lives  are  built  up  by  the  re- 
currence of  transient  deeds,  which  leave  their  per- 
manent marks  upon  us.  They  make  character,  and 
character  determines  position  yonder.  As  said  the 
Apostle,  with  tender  sparingness,  and  yet  with  profound 
truth, '  he  went  to  his  own  place,'  wherever  that  was. 
The  surroundings  that  he  was  fitted  for  came  about 
him,  and  the  company  that  he  was  fit  for  associated 
themselves  with  him.    So  in  another  part  of  this  book 


T.ll]  II.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-CROWN    201 

where  the  same  solemn  expression, '  the  second  death,' 
is  employed,  we  read,  'These  shall  have  their  %)art 
in  .  .  .  the  second  death  * :  the  lot  that  belongs  to  them. 
Character  and  conduct  determine  position.  However 
small  the  lives  here,  they  settle  the  far  greater  ones 
hereafter,  just  as  a  tiny  wheel  in  a  machine  may,  by 
cogs  and  other  mechanical  devices,  transmit  its  motion 
to  another  wheel  at  a  distance,  many  times  its  diameter. 
You  move  this  end  of  a  lever  through  an  arc  of  an  inch, 
and  the  other  end  will  move  through  an  arc  of  yards. 
The  little  life  here  determines  the  sweep  of  the  great  one 
that  is  lived  yonder.  The  victor  wears  his  past  conduct 
and  character,  if  I  may  so  say,  as  a  fireproof  garment, 
and  if  he  entered  the  very  furnace,  heated  seven  times 
hotter  than  before,  there  would  be  no  smell  of  fire  upon 
him.  *  He  that  overcometh  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the 
second  death.' 

II.  Now  note,  secondly,  the  Christian  motive  con- 
tained in  the  victor's  reception  of  a  great  good. 

•  I  will  give  him  a  crown  of  life.'  I  need  not  remind 
you,  I  suppose,  that  this  metaphor  of  '  the  crown '  is 
found  in  other  instructively  various  places  in  the  New 
Testament.  Paul,  for  instance,  speaks  of  his  own 
personal  hope  of  '  the  crown  of  righteousness.'  James 
speaks,  as  does  the  letter  to  the  Smyrnean  Church,  of 
'the  crown  of  life.'  Peter  speaks  'of  the  crown  of 
glory.'  Paul,  in  another  place,  speaks  of  '  the  crown 
incorruptible.'  And  all  these  express  substantially  the 
one  idea.  There  may  be  a  question  as  to  whether  the 
word  employed  here  for  the  crown  is  to  be  taken  in 
its  strictly  literal  acceptation  as  meaning,  not  a  kingly 
coronal,  but  a  garland.  But  seeing  that,  although  that 
is  the  strict  meaning  of  the  word,  it  is  employed  in  a 
subsequent  part  of  the  letter  to  designate  what  must 


202  REVELATION  [oh.  ii. 

evidently  be  kingly  crowns — viz.,  in  the  fourth  chapter 
— there  seems  to  be  greater  probability  in  the  supposi- 
tion that  we  are  warranted  in  including  under  the 
symbolism  here  both  the  aspects  of  the  crown  as  royal, 
and  also  as  laid  upon  the  brows  of  the  victors  in  the 
games  or  the  conflict.  I  venture  to  take  it  in  that 
meaning.  Substantially  the  promise  is  the  same  as 
that  which  we  were  considering  in  the  previous  letter, 
'  I  will  give  him  to  eat  of  the  Tree  of  Life ' ;  the  promise 
of  life  in  all  the  depth  and  fulness  and  sweep  of  that 
great  encyclopaedical  word.  But  it  is  life  considered 
from  a  special  point  of  view  that  is  set  forth  here. 

It  is  a  kingly  life.  Of  course  that  notion  of  regality 
and  dominion,  as  the  prerogative  of  the  redeemed  and 
glorified  servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  for  ever  cropping 
up  in  this  book  of  the  Revelation.  And  you  remember 
how  our  Lord  has  set  the  example  of  its  use  when 
He  said,  '  Have  thou  authority  over  ten  cities.' 
What  may  lie  in  that  great  symbol  it  is  not  for  us 
to  say.  The  rule  over  ourselves,  over  circumstances, 
the  deliverance  from  the  tyranny  of  the  external,  the 
deliverance  from  the  slavery  of  the  body  and  its  lusts 
and  passions,  these  are  all  included.  The  man  that  can 
will  rightly,  and  can  do  completely  as  he  rightly  wills, 
that  man  is  a  king.  But  there  is  more  than  that. 
There  is  the  participation  in  wondrous,  and  for  us  in- 
conceivable, ways,  in  the  majesty  and  regality  of  the 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  Therefore  did  the 
crowned  elders  before  the  throne  sing  a  new  song  to  the 
Lamb,  who  made  redeemed  men  out  of  every  tribe  and 
tongue,  to  be  to  God  a  kingdom,  and  priests  who  should 
reign  upon  the  earth. 

But,  brethren,  remember  that  this  conception  of  a 
kingly  life  is  to  be  interpreted  according  to  Christ's 


▼.11]   Il.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-CROWN   203 

own  teaching  of  that  wherein  royalty  in  His  kingdom 
consists.  For  heaven,  as  for  earth,  the  purpose  of 
dominion  is  service,  and  the  use  of  power  is  beneficence. 
•  He  that  is  chief  est  of  all,  let  him  be  servant  of  all,'  is 
the  law  for  the  regalities  of  heaven  as  well  as  for  the 
lowliness  of  earth. 

That  life  is  a  triumphant  life.  The  crown  was  laid 
on  the  head  of  the  victor  in  the  games.  Think  of  the 
victor  as  he  went  back,  flushed  and  modest,  to  his 
village  away  up  on  the  slopes  of  some  of  the  mountain- 
chains  of  Greece.  With  what  a  tumult  of  acclaim  he 
would  be  hailed !  If  we  do  our  work  and  fight  our 
fight  down  here  as  we  ought,  we  shall  enter  into  the 
great  city  not  unnoticed,  not  unwelcomed,  but  with  the 
praise  of  the  King  and  the  paeans  of  His  attendants. 
'I  will  confess  his  name  before  My  Father  and  the 
holy  angels.' 

That  life  is  a  festal  life.  The  garlands  are  twined 
on  the  heated  brows  of  revellers,  and  the  fumes  of  the 
wine  and  the  closeness  of  the  chamber  soon  make  them 
wilt  and  droop.  This  amaranthine  crown  fadeth  never. 
And  the  feast  expresses  for  us  the  felicities,  the 
abiding  satisfactions  without  satiety,  the  blessed  com- 
panionship, the  repose  which  belong  to  the  crowned. 
Royalty,  triumph,  festal  goodness,  all  fused  together, 
are  incomplete,  but  they  are  not  useless  symbols.  May 
we  experience  their  fulfilment ! 

Brethren,  the  crown  is  promised  not  merely  to  the 
man  that  says,  '  I  have  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,'  but  to 
him  who  has  worked  out  his  faith  into  faithfulness, 
and  by  conduct  and  character  has  made  himself  capable 
of  the  felicities  of  the  heavens.  If  that  immortal  crown 
were  laid  upon  the  head  of  another,  it  would  be  a  crown 
of  thorns ;  for  the  joys  of  that  future  require  the  fitness 


204  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

which  comes  from  the  apprenticeship  to  faith  and 
faithfulness  here  on  earth.  We  evangelical  preachers 
are  often  taunted  with  preaching  that  future  blessed- 
ness comes  as  the  result  of  the  simple  act  of  belief. 
Yes;  but  only  if,  and  when,  the  simple  act  of  faith, 
which  is  more  than  belief,  is  wrought  out  in  the  love- 
liness of  faithfulness.  *  We  are  made  partakers  of 
Christ,  if  we  hold  fast  the  beginning  of  our  confidence 
firm  unto  the  end.' 

Now,  dear  friends,  I  dare  say  that  some  of  you  may 
be  disposed  to  brush  aside  these  fears  and  hopes  as 
very  low  motives,  unworthy  to  be  appealed  to ;  but  I 
cannot  so  regard  them.  I  know  that  the  appeal  to  fear 
is  directed  to  the  lower  order  of  sentiments,  but  it  is  a 
legitimate  motive.  It  is  meant  to  stir  us  up  to  gird 
ourselves  against  the  dangers  which  we  wisely  dread. 
And  I,  for  my  part,  believe  that  we  preachers  are  going 
aside  from  our  Pattern,  and  are  flinging  away  a  very 
powerful  weapon,  in  the  initial  stages  of  religious 
experience,  if  we  are  afraid  to  bring  before  men's  hearts 
and  answering  consciences  the  solemn  facts  of  the 
future  which  Jesus  Christ  Himself  has  revealed  to  us. 
We  are  no  more  to  be  blamed  for  it  than  the  signal- 
man for  waving  his  red  flag.  And  I  fancy  that  there 
are  some  of  my  present  hearers  who  would  be  nearer 
the  love  of  God  if  they  took  more  to  heart  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  and  of  His  judgment. 

Hope  is  surely  a  perfectly  legitimate  motive  to  appeal 
to.  We  are  not  to  be  good  because  we  thereby  escape 
hell  and  secure  heaven.  We  are  to  be  good,  because 
Jesus  Christ  wills  us  to  be,  and  has  won  us  to  love  Him, 
or  has  sought  to  win  us  to  love  Him,  by  His  great 
sacrifice  for  us.  But  that  being  the  basis,  men  can  be 
brought  to  build  upon  it  by  the  compulsion  of  fear  and 


v.ii]  III.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-SECRET  205 

by  the  attraction  of  hope.  And  that  being  the  deepest 
motive,  there  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  and  noble  sphere 
for  the  operation  of  these  two  other  lower  motives,  the 
consideration  of  the  personal  evils  that  attend  the 
opposite  course,  and  of  the  personal  good  that  follows 
from  cleaving  to  Him.  Am  I  to  be  told  that  Polycarp, 
Bishop  of  Smyrna,  who  went  to  his  martyrdom,  and 
was  •  faithful  unto  death,'  with  the  words  on  his  lips : 
•  Eighty-and-six  years  have  I  served  Him,  and  He  has 
done  me  nothing  but  good ;  how  shall  I  deny  my  King 
and  my  Saviour  1 '  was  yielding  to  a  low  motive  when 
to  him  the  crown  that  the  Master  promised  to  the 
Church  of  which  he  was  afterwards  bishop  floated  above 
the  head  that  was  soon  to  be  shorn  off,  and  on  whose 
blood-stained  brows  it  was  then  to  fall  ?  Would  that 
we  had  more  of  such  low  motives  1  Would  that  we 
had  more  of  such  high  lives  as  fear  nothing  because 
they 'have  respect  to  the  recompense  of  the  reward,' 
and  are  ready  for  service  or  martyrdom,  because  they 
hear  and  believe  the  crowned  Christ  saying  to  them : 
'  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a 
crown  of  life.' 


III.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-SECRET 

*  ...  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna,  and  will 
give  him  a  white  Btone,  and  in  the  stone  a  new  name  written,  which  no  man 
knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it.'— Rev.  ii.  17. 

The  Church  at  Pergamos,  to  which  this  promise  is 
addressed,  had  a  sharper  struggle  than  fell  to  the  lot 
of  the  two  Churches  whose  epistles  precede  this.  It 
was  set  *  where  Satan's  seat  is.'  Pergamos  was  a 
special  centre  of  heathen  worship,  and  already  the 
blood  of  a  faithful  martyr  had  been  shed  in  it.    The 


206  REVELATION  [oh.  ii. 

severer  the  struggle,  the  nobler  the  reward.  Con- 
sequently the  promise  given  to  this  militant  Church 
surpasses,  in  some  respects,  those  held  out  to  the 
former  two.  They  were  substantially  promised  that 
life  eternal,  which  indeed  includes  everything;  but 
here  some  of  the  blessed  contents  of  that  life  are  ex- 
panded and  emphasised. 

There  is  a  threefold  promise  given:  'the  hidden 
manna,'  *  the  white  stone,'  a  *  new  name  '  written.  The 
first  and  the  last  of  these  are  evidently  the  most 
important.  They  need  little  explanation ;  of  the  central 
one  *  the  white  stone,'  a  bewildering  variety  of  inter- 
pretations— none  of  them,  as  it  seems  to  me,  satisfac- 
tory— have  been  suggested.  Possibly  there  may  be  an 
allusion  to  the  ancient  custom  of  dropping  the  votes  of 
the  judges  into  an  urn — a  white  pebble  meaning  inno- 
cence and  acquittal;  black  meaning  guilty — just  as  we, 
under  somewhat  similar  circumstances,  talk  about 
'  blackballing.*  But  the  objection  to  that  interpreta- 
tion lies  in  the  fact  that  the  '  white  stone '  of  our  text 
is  given  to  the  person  concerned,  and  not  deposited 
elsewhere.  There  may  be  an  allusion  to  a  practice, 
which  antiquarians  have  hunted  out,  of  conferring 
upon  the  victors  in  the  games  a  little  tile  with  a  name 
inscribed  upon  it,  which  gave  admission  to  the  public 
festivals.  But  all  the  explanations  are  so  doubtful 
that  one  hesitates  to  accept  any  of  them.  There  re- 
mains one  other  alternative,  which  seems  to  me  to  be 
suggested  by  the  very  language  of  the  text,  viz.,  that 
the  *  white  stone '  is  here  named — with  possibly  some 
subsidiary  thought  of  innocence  and  purity — merely  as 
the  vehicle  for  the  name.  And  so  I  dismiss  it  from 
further  consideration,  and  concentrate  our  thoughts 
on  the  remaining  two  promises. 


T.17]  III.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-SECRET  207 

I.  We  have  the  victor's  food,  the  manna. 

That  seems,  at  first  sight,  a  somewhat  infelicitous 
symbol,  because  manna  was  wilderness  food.  But  that 
characteristic  is  not  to  be  taken  into  account.  Manna, 
though  it  fell  in  the  wilderness,  came  from  heaven, 
and  it  is  the  heavenly  food  that  is  suggested  by  the 
symbol.  When  the  warrior  passes  from  the  fight  into 
the  city,  the  food  which  came  down  from  heaven  will 
be  given  to  him  in  fulness.  It  is  a  beautiful  thought 
that  as  soon  as  the  man,  *  spent  with  changing  blows,' 
and  weary  with  conflict,  enters  the  land  of  peace,  there 
is  a  table  spread  for  him ;  not,  as  before,  in  •  the 
presence  of  his  enemies,'  but  in  the  presence  of  the 
companions  of  his  repose.  One  moment  hears  the  din 
of  the  battlefield,  the  next  moment  feels  the  refresh- 
ment of  the  heavenly  manna. 

But  now  there  can  be  little  need  for  dealing,  by  way 
of  exposition,  with  this  symbol.  Let  us  rather  try  to 
lay  it  upon  our  hearts. 

Now  the  first  thing  that  it  plainly  suggests  to  us  is 
the  absolute  satisfaction  of  all  the  hunger  of  the  heart. 
It  is  possible,  and  for  those  that  overcome  it  will  one 
day  be  actual  experience,  that  a  man  shall  have  every- 
thing that  he  wishes  the  moment  that  he  wishes  it. 
Here  we  have  to  suppress  desires,  sometimes  because 
they  are  illegitimate  and  wrong,  sometimes  because 
circumstances  sternly  forbid  their  indulgence.  There, 
to  desire  will  be  to  have,  and  partly  by  the  rectifying 
of  the  appetite,  partly  by  the  fulness  of  the  supply, 
there  will  be  no  painful  sense  of  vacuity,  and  no 
clamouring  of  the  unsubdued  heart  for  good  that  is 
beyond  its  reach.  They  —  and  you  and  I  may  be 
amongst  them,  and  so  we  may  say  '  we' — '  shall  hunger 
no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more.'    Oh,  brethren!  to 


208  REVELATION  [oh.  ii. 

us  who  are  driven  into  activity  by  desires,  half  of 
which  go  to  water  and  are  never  fulfilled — to  us  who 
know  what  it  is  to  try  to  tame  down  the  hungering, 
yelping  wishes  and  longings  of  our  souls — to  us  who 
have  so  often  spent  our  '  money  for  that  which  is  not 
bread,  and  our  labour  for  that  which  satisfieth  not,'  it 
ought  to  be  a  Gospel :  '  I  will  give  him  to  eat  of  the 
hidden  manna.'  Is  it  such  to  you  ?  Do  you  believe  it 
possible,  and  are  you  addressing  yourselves  to  make 
the  fulfilment  of  it  actual  in  your  case  ? 

Then  there  is  the  other  plain  thing  suggested  here, 
that  that  satisfaction  does  not  dull  the  edge  of  appetite 
or  desire.  Bodily  hunger  is  fed,  is  replete,  wants 
nothing  more  until  the  lapse  of  time  and  digestion 
have  intervened.  But  it  is  not  so  with  the  loftiest 
satisfactions.  There  are  some  select,  noble,  blessed 
desires  even  here,  concerning  which  we  know  that  the 
more  we  have,  the  more  we  hunger  with  a  hunger  which 
has  no  pain  in  it,  but  is  only  the  greatened  capacity 
for  greater  enjoyment.  You  that  know  what  happy 
love  is  know  what  that  means — a  satisfaction  which 
never  approaches  satiety,  a  hunger  which  has  in  it  no 
gnawing.  And  in  the  loftiest  and  most  perfect  of  all 
realms,  that  co-existence  of  perfect  fruition  and  perfect 
desire  will  be  still  more  wondrously  and  blessedly 
manifest.  At  each  moment  the  more  we  have,  the 
wider  will  our  hearts  be  expanded  by  possession,  and 
the  wider  they  are  expanded  the  more  will  they  be 
capable  of  receiving,  and  the  more  they  are  capable  of 
receiving  the  more  deep  and  full  and  blessed  and  all- 
covering  will  be  the  inrush  of  the  river  of  the  water  of 
life.  Satisfaction  without  satiety,  food  which  leaves 
him  blessedly  appetised  for  larger  bestowments,  belong 
to  the  victor. 


V.17]  III.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-SECRET  209 

Another  thing  to  be  noticed  here  is  what  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  point  out  in  the  previous 
promises  :  •  I  will  give  him.'  Do  you  remember  our 
Lord's  own  wonderful  words  :  '  Blessed  are  those 
servants,  whom  the  Lord  when  He  cometh  shall  find 
watching:  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  He  shall  gird 
Himself ,  and  shall  come  forth  and  serve  them'?  The 
victor  is  seated  at  the  board,  and  the  Prince,  as  in  some 
earthly  banquet  to  a  victorious  army.  Himself  moves 
up  and  down  amongst  the  tables,  and  supplies  the 
wants  of  the  guests.  There  was  an  old  Jewish  tradi- 
tion, which  perhaps  may  have  influenced  the  form  of 
this  promise,  to  the  effect  that  the  Messiah,  when  He 
came,  would  bring  again  to  the  people  the  gift  of  the 
manna,  and  men  should  once  more  eat  angels'  food. 
Whether  there  is  any  allusion  to  that  poetic  fancy  or 
no  in  the  words  of  my  text,  the  reality  infinitely  trans- 
scends  it.  Christ  Himself  bestows  upon  His  servants 
the  sustenance  of  their  spirits  in  the  realm  above.  But 
there  is  more  than  that.  Christ  is  not  only  the  Giver, 
but  He  is  Himself  the  Food.  I  believe  that  the  deepest 
meaning  of  this  sevenfold  cluster  of  jewels,  the  pro- 
mises to  these  seven  Churches,  is  in  each  case  Christ. 
He  is  the  Tree  of  Life  ;  He  is  the  Crown  of  Life,  He  is 
— as  well  as  gives  —  'the  hidden  manna.'  You  will 
remember  how  He  Himself  gives  us  this  interpretation 
when,  in  answer  to  the  Jewish  taunt,  '  Our  fathers  did 
eat  manna  in  the  wilderness.  What  dost  Thou  work  ? ' 
He  said,  '  I  am  that  Bread  of  God  that  came  down  from 
heaven.' 

So,  then,  once  more,  we  come  back  to  the  all-import- 
ant teaching  that,  whatever  be  the  glories  of  the 
perfected  flower  and  fruit  in  heaven,  the  germ  and 
root  of  it  is  already  here.     The  man  who  lives  upon 

O 


210  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

the  Christ  by  faith,  love,  obedience,  imitation,  com- 
munion, aspiration,  here  on  earth,  has  already  the 
earnest  of  that  feast.  No  doubt  there  will  be  aspects 
and  sweetnesses  and  savours  and  sustenance  in  the 
heavenly  form  of  our  possession  of,  and  living  on,  Him, 
which  we  here  on  earth  know  nothing  about.  But  no 
doubt  also  the  beginning  and  positive  degree  of  all 
these  sweetnesses  and  savours  and  sustenances  yet  to 
be  revealed  is  found  in  the  experience  of  the  man  who 
has  listened  to  the  cry  of  that  loving  voice,  '  Eat,  and 
your  souls  shall  live';  and  has  taken  Jesus  Christ 
Himself,  the  living  Person,  to  be  not  only  the  source 
but  the  nourishment  of  his  spiritual  life. 

So,  brethren,  it  is  of  no  use  to  pretend  to  ourselves 
that  we  should  like — as  they  put  it  in  bald,  popular 
language — to  '  go  to  heaven,'  unless  we  are  using  and 
relishing  that  of  heaven  which  is  here  to-day.  If  you 
do  not  like  the  earthly  form  of  feeding  upon  Jesus 
Christ,  which  is  trusting  Him,  giving  your  heart  to 
Him,  obeying  Him,  thinking  about  Him,  treading  in 
His  footsteps,  you  would  not  like,  you  would  like  less, 
the  heavenly  form  of  that  feeding  upon  Him.  If  you 
would  rather  have  the  strong-smelling  garlic  and  the 
savoury  leeks — to  say  nothing  about  the  swine's  trough 
and  the  husks — than  'this  light  bread,'  the  'angels' 
food,'  which  your  palates  cannot  stand  and  your 
stomachs  cannot  digest,  you  could  not  swallow  it  if  it 
were  put  into  your  lips  when  you  get  beyond  the 
grave ;  and  you  would  not  like  it  if  you  could.  Christ 
forces  this  manna  into  no  man's  mouth;  but  Christ 
gives  it  to  all  who  desire  it  and  are  fit  for  it.  As  is  the 
man's  appetite,  so  is  the  man's  food ;  and  so  is  the  life 
that  results  therefrom. 

II.  Note  the  victor's  new  name. 


T.17]  III.-THE  VICTORS  LIFE-SECRET  211 

I  have  often  had  occasion  to  point  out  to  you  that 
Scripture  attaches,  in  accordance  with  Eastern  habit, 
large  importance  to  names,  which  are  intended  to  be 
significant  of  character,  or  circumstances,  or  parental 
hopes  or  desires.  So  that,  both  in  reference  to  God 
and  man,  names  come  to  be  the  condensed  expression 
of  the  character  and  the  personality.  When  we  read, 
'  I  will  give  him  a  stone,  on  which  there  is  a  new  name 
written,'  we  infer  that  the  main  suggestion  made  in 
that  promise  is  of  a  change  in  the  self,  something  new 
in  the  personality  and  the  character.  I  need  not  dwell 
upon  this,  for  we  have  no  material  by  which  to  expand 
into  detail  the  greatness  of  the  promise.  I  would  only 
remind  you  of  how  we  are  taught  to  believe  that  the 
dropping  away  of  the  corporeal  and  removal  from 
this  present  scene  carries  with  it,  in  the  case  of  those 
who  have  here  on  earth  begun  to  walk  with  Christ, 
and  to  become  citizens  of  the  spiritual  realm,  changes 
great,  ineffable,  and  all  tending  in  the  one  direction  of 
making  the  servants  more  fully  like  their  Lord.  What 
new  capacities  may  be  evolved  by  the  mere  fact  of 
losing  the  limitations  of  the  bodily  frame;  what  new 
points  of  contact  with  a  new  universe ;  what  new 
analogues  of  what  we  here  call  our  senses  and  means 
of  perception  of  the  external  world  may  be  the  accom- 
paniments of  the  disembarrassment  from  '  the  earthly 
house  of  this  tabernacle,'  we  dare  not  dream.  We 
could  not,  if  we  were  told,  rightly  understand.  But, 
surely,  if  the  tenant  is  taken  from  a  clay  hut  and  set 
in  a  royal  house,  eternal,  not  made  with  hands,  its 
windows  must  be  wider  and  more  transparent,  and 
there  must  be  an  inrush  of  wondrously  more  brilliant 
light  into  the  chambers. 

But  whatsoever  be  these  changes,  they  are  changes 


212  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

that  repose  upon  that  which  has  been  in  the  past. 
And  so  the  second  thought  that  is  suggested  by  this 
new  name  is  that  these  changes  are  the  direct  results 
of  the  victor's  course.  Both  in  old  times  and  in  the 
peerage  of  England  you  will  find  names  of  conquerors, 
by  land  or  by  water,  who  carry  in  their  designations 
and  transmit  to  their  descendants  the  memorial  of 
their  victories  in  their  very  titles.  In  like  manner  as  a 
Scipio  was  called  Africanus,  as  a  Jervis  became  Lord 
St.  Vincent,  so  the  victor's  '  new  name '  is  the  concen- 
tration and  memorial  of  the  victor's  conquest.  And 
what  we  have  wrought  and  fought  here  on  earth  we 
carry  with  us,  as  the  basis  of  the  changes  from  glory 
to  glory  which  shall  come  in  the  heavens.  *  They  rest 
from  their  labours ;  their  works  do  follow  them,'  and, 
gathering  behind  the  laurelled  victor,  attend  him  as  he 
ascends  the  hill  of  the  Lord. 

But  once  more  we  come  to  the  thought  that  what- 
ever there  may  be  of  change  in  the  future,  the  main 
direction  of  the  character  remains,  and  the  consolidated 
issues  of  the  transient  deeds  of  earth  remain,  and  the 
victor's  name  is  the  summing  up  of  the  victor's  life. 

But,  further,  Christ  gives  the  name.  He  changed 
the  names  of  His  disciples.  Simon  He  called  Cephas, 
James  and  John  He  called  *  Sons  of  Thunder.'  The  act 
claimed  authority,  and  designated  a  new  relation  to 
Him.  Both  these  ideas  are  conveyed  in  the  promise : 
'I  will  give  him  ...  a  new  name  written.'  Only, 
brethren,  remember  that  the  transformation  keeps 
true  to  the  line  of  direction  begun  here,  and  the  pro- 
cess of  change  has  to  be  commenced  on  earth.  They 
who  win  the  new  name  of  heaven  are  they  of  whom  it 
would  be  truly  said,  while  they  bore  the  old  name  of 
earth,  *  If  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature.' 


V.17]  III.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-SECRET  218 

'  Old  things  are  passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  are 
become  new.' 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  mystery  of  both  the  food  and 
the  name. 

•  I  will  give  him  the  hidden  manna  ...  a  new  name 
.  .  .  which  no  man  knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth 
it.'  Now  we  all  know  that  the  manna  was  laid  up  in 
the  Ark,  beneath  the  Shekinah,  within  the  curtain  of 
the  holiest  place.  And,  besides  that,  there  was  a 
Jewish  tradition  that  the  Ark  and  its  contents,  which 
disappeared  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  first  Temple,  had  been  buried  by  the  prophet 
Jeremiah,  and  lay  hidden  away  somewhere  on  the 
sacred  soil,  until  the  Messiah  should  return.  There  may 
be  an  allusion  to  that  here,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  it.  The  pot  of  manna  lay  in  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  of  which  we  hear  in  another  part  of  the 
symbolism  in  this  book,  within  the  veil  in  the  holiest 
of  all.  And  Christ  gives  the  victor  to  partake  of  that 
sacred  and  secret  food.  The  name  which  is  given  '  no 
r  an  knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it.'  Both  symbols 
po.  "t  to  the  one  thought,  the  impossibility  of  knowing 
until  we  possess  and  experience. 

That  impossibility  besets  all  the  noblest,  highest, 
purest,  divinest  emotions  and  possessions  of  earth. 
Poets  have  sung  of  love  and  sorrow  from  the  beginning 
of  time ;  but  men  must  love  to  know  what  love  means. 
Every  woman  has  heard  about  the  sweetness  of  mater- 
nity, but  not  till  the  happy  mother  holds  her  infant  to 
her  breast  does  she  understand  it.  And  so  we  may 
talk  till  Doomsday,  and  yet  it  would  remain  true  that 
we  must  eat  the  manna,  and  look  upon  the  white  stone 
for  ourselves,  before  we  can  adequately  comprehend. 

Since,  then,  experience  alone  admits  to  the  know- 


214  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

ledge,  how  vulgar,  how  futile,  how  absolutely  destruc- 
tive of  the  very  purpose  which  they  are  intended  to 
subserve  are  all  the  attempts  of  men  to  forecast  that 
ineffable  glory.  It  is  too  great  to  be  understood.  The 
mountains  that  ring  us  round  keep  the  secret  well  of 
the  fair  lands  beyond.  There  are  questions  that  bleed- 
ing hearts  sometimes  ask,  questions  which  prurient 
curiosity  more  often  ask,  and  which  foolish  people  to- 
day are  taking  illegitimate  means  of  solving,  about 
that  future  life,  which  are  all  left — though  some  of 
them  might  conceivably  have  been  answered  —  in 
silence.    Enough  for  us  to  listen  to  the  voice  that  says, 

•  In  My  Father's  house  are  many  mansions ' — room  for 
you  and  me — *  if  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you.' 
For  the  silence  is  eloquent.  The  curtain  is  the  picture. 
The  impossibility  of  telling  is  the  token  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  thing  to  be  told.  Hope  needs  but  little  yarn 
to  weave  her  web  with.  I  believe  that  the  dimness  is 
part  of  the  power  of  that  heavenly  prospect.  Let  us 
be  reticent  before  it.  Let  us  remember  that,  though 
our  knowledge  is  small  and  our  eyes  dim,  Christ  knows 
all,  and  we  shall  be  with  Him;  and  so  say,  with  no 
sense  of    pained    ignorance  or    unsatisfied  curiosity, 

*  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but  we  know 
that  when  He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for 
we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.'  Cannot  our  hearts  add, '  It 
is  enough  for  the  servant  that  he  be  as  his  master  *  ? 

An  old  commentator  on  this  verse  says,  'Wouldst 
thou  know  what  manner  of  new  name  thoushalt  bear? 
Overcome.  It  is  vain  for  thee  to  ask  beforehand.  Here- 
after thou  shalt  soon  see  it  written  on  the  white  stone.' 

Help  us,  O  Lord,  to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  in 
the  sure  confidence  that  Thou  wilt  receive  us,  and  re- 
fresh us,  and  renew  us. 


THE  FIRST  AND  LAST  WORKS 

'  I  know  thy  last  works  ...  to  be  more  than  the  first.'— Rev.  11. 19i 

It  is  beautiful  to  notice  that  Jesus  Christ,  in  this  letter, 
says  all  He  can  of  praise  before  He  utters  a  word  of 
blame.  He  is  glad  when  His  eye,  which  is  as  a  flame 
of  fire,  sees  in  His  children  that  which  He  can  commend. 
Praise  from  Him  is  praise  indeed ;  and  it  does  not  need 
that  the  act  should  be  perfect  in  order  to  get  His  com- 
mendation. The  main  thing  is,  which  way  does  it 
look  ?  Direction,  and  not  attainment,  is  what  He  com- 
mends. And  if  the  deed  of  the  present  moment  be 
better  than  the  deed  of  the  last,  though  there  be  still 
a  great  gap  between  it  and  absolute  completeness,  the 
commendation  of  my  text  applies,  and  is  never  grudg- 
ingly rendered.  *  I  know  thy  last  done  works  to  be 
more  than  the  first.' 

There  is  blame  in  plenty,  grave,  and  about  grave 
matters,  following  in  this  letter,  but  that  is  not  per- 
mitted in  the  slightest  degree  to  diminish  the  warmth 
and  heartiness  of  the  commendation. 

I.  So  these  words  tell  us,  first,  what  every  Christian 
life  is  meant  to  be. 

A  life  of  continual  progress,  in  which  each  *  to-morrow 
shall  be  as  this  day,  and  much  more  abundant,'  in 
reference  to  all  that  is  good  and  noble  and  true  is  the 
ideal  after  which  every  Christian  man,  by  his  profes- 
sion, is  bound  to  aim,  because  in  the  gospel  that  we 
say  we  believe  there  lie  positively  infinite  powers  to 
make  us  perfectly  pure  and  noble  and  complete  all 
round.  And  in  it  there  lie,  if  we  lay  them  upon 
our  hearts,  and  let  them  work,  positively  omnipotent 

816 


216  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

motives,  to  impel  us  with  unwearied  and  ever-growing 
earnestness  towards  likeness  to  the  Master  whom  we 
say  we  love  and  serve.  A  continuous  progress  towards 
and  in  all  good  of  every  sort  is  the  very  law  of  the 
Christian  life. 

The  same  law  holds  good  in  regard  to  all  regions  of 
life.  Everybody  knows,  and  a  hundred  commonplace 
proverbs  tell  us,  that  practice  makes  perfect,  that  the 
man  who  carries  a  little  weight  to-day  will  be  able  to 
carry  a  bigger  one  to-morrow ;  that  powers  exercised 
are  rewarded  by  greater  strength ;  that  he  that  begins 
by  a  short  march,  though  he  is  wearied  after  he  has 
walked  a  mile  or  two,  will  be  able  to  walk  a  great  deal 
farther  the  next  day.  In  all  departments  of  effort  it 
is  true  that  the  longer  we  continue  in  a  course,  the 
easier  ought  it  be  to  do  the  things,  and  the  larger 
ought  to  be  the  results.  The  fruit  tree  does  not  begin 
to  bear  for  a  year  or  two,  and  when  it  does  come  the 
crop  is  neither  in  size  nor  in  abundance  anything  to 
compare  with  that  which  is  borne  afterwards. 

In  the  same  way,  for  the  Christian  course,  continual 
progress  and  an  ever-widening  area  of  the  life  con- 
quered for  and  filled  with  Christ,  manifestly  ought  to 
be  the  law.  '  Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind, 
reaching  forth  toward  the  things  that  are  before,  we 
press  toward  the  mark.'  Every  metaphor  about  the 
life  of  the  Christian  soul  carries  the  same  lesson.  Is 
it  a  building  ?  Then  course  by  course  it  rises.  Is  it 
a  tree  ?  Then  year  by  year  it  spreads  a  broader  shadow, 
and  its  leafy  crown  reaches  nearer  heaven.  Is  it  a 
body  ?  Then  from  childhood  to  youth,  and  youth  to 
manhood,  it  grows.  Christianity  is  growth,  continual, 
all-embracing,  and  unending. 

II.  The  next  remark  that  I  make  is  this,  the  com- 


V.19]  THE  FIRST  AND  LAST  WORKS     217 

mendation  of  Christ  describes  what  a  sadly  large  pro- 
portion of  professedly  Christian  lives  are  not. 

Do  you  think,  brethren,  that  if  He  were  to  come 
amongst  us  now  with  these  attributes  which  the  context 
gives  us,  with  His  '  eyes  like  unto  a  flame  of  fire '  to 
behold,  and  His  'feet  like  unto  fine  brass'  to  tread 
down  all  opposition  and  evil.  He  would  find  amongst 
us  what  would  warrant  His  pure  lips  in  saying  this 
about  us,  either  as  a  community  or  as  individuals — '  I 
know  that  thy  last  works  are  more  than  thy  first '  ? 

What  is  the  ordinary  history  of  the  multitudes  of 
professing  Christians  ?  Something  which  they  call — 
rightly  or  wrongly  is  not  the  question  for  the  moment 
— •  conversion,'  then  a  year  or  two,  or  perhaps  a  month 
or  two,  or  perhaps  a  week  or  two,  or  perhaps  a  day  or 
two,  of  profound  earnestness,  of  joyful  consecration, 
of  willing  obedience — and  then  back  swarm  the  old 
ties,  and  habits,  and  associations.  Many  professing 
Christians  are  cases  of  arrested  development,  like  some 
of  those  monstrosities  that  you  see  about  our  pave- 
ments— a  full-grown  man  in  the  upper  part  with  no 
under  limbs  at  all  to  speak  of,  aged  half  a  century,  and 
only  half  the  height  of  a  ten-year-old  child.  Are  there 
not  multitudes  of  so-called  Christian  people,  in  all  our 
churches  and  communities,  like  that?  I  wonder  if 
there  are  any  of  them  here  to-night,  that  have  not 
grown  a  bit  for  years,  whose  deeds  yesterday  were  just 
the  same  as  their  deeds  to-day,  and  so  on  through  a 
long,  dreary,  past  perspective  of  unprogressive  life, 
the  old  sins  cropping  up  with  the  old  power  and  venom, 
the  old  weak  bits  in  the  dyke  bursting  out  again  every 
winter,  and  at  each  flood,  after  all  tinkering  and  mend- 
ing, the  old  faults  as  rampant  as  ever,  the  new  life  as 
feeble,  fluttering,  spasmodic,  uncertain.    They  grow,  if 


218  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

at  all,  by  fits  and  starts,  after  the  fashion,  say,  of  a 
tree  that  every  winter  goes  to  sleep,  and  only  makes 
wood  for  a  little  while  in  the  summer  time.  Or  they 
do  not  grow  even  as  regularly  as  that,  but  there  will 
come  sometimes  an  hour  or  two  of  growth,  and  then 
long  dreary  tracts  in  which  there  is  no  progress  at  all, 
either  in  understanding  of  Christian  doctrine  or  in  the 
application  of  Christian  precept;  no  increase  of  con- 
formity to  Jesus  Christ,  no  increase  of  realising  hold  of 
His  love,  no  clearer  or  more  fixed  and  penetrating  con- 
templation of  the  unseen  realities,  than  there  used  to 
be  long,  long  ago.  How  many  of  us  are  babes  in  Christ 
when  we  have  grey  hairs  upon  our  heads,  and  when 
for  the  time  we  ought  to  be  teachers  have  need  that 
one  should  teach  us  again  which  be  the  first  principles 
of  the  oracles  of  God  ? 

Oh !  dear  friends,  it  seems  to  me  sometimes  that  that 
notion  of  the  continuous  growth  in  Christian  under- 
standing and  feeling  and  character,  as  attaching  to 
the  very  essence  of  the  Christian  life,  is  clean  gone  out 
of  the  consciousness  of  half  the  professing  Christians 
of  this  day.  How  far  our  notions  about  Church  fellow- 
ship, and  reception  of  people  into  the  Church,  and  the 
like,  have  to  do  with  it,  is  not  for  me  to  discuss  here. 
Only  this  I  cannot  help  feeling,  that  if  Jesus  Christ 
came  into  most  of  our  congregations  nowadays  He 
would  not,  and  could  not,  say  what  He  said  to  these 
poor  people  at  Thyatira,  •  I  know  thy  last  works  are 
more  than  thy  first.' 

Well,  then,  let  us  remember  that  if  He  cannot  say 
that,  He  has  to  say  the  opposite.  I  take  it  that  the 
words  of  my  text  are  a  distinct  allusion  to  other  words 
of  His,  when  He  spoke  the  converse,  about  the  'last 
state  of  that  man  as  worse  than  the  first.'    The  allusion 


V.  19]  THE  FIRST  AND  LAST  WORKS    219 

is  obvious,  I  think,  and  it  is  also  made  in  the  Second 
Epistle  of  Peter,  where  we  find  a  similar  description  of 
the  man  who  has  fallen  away  from  Jesus  Christ.  Let  us 
learn  the  lesson  that  either  to-day  is  better  than  yester- 
day or  it  is  worse.  If  a  man  on  a  bicycle  stands  still, 
he  tumbles.  The  condition  of  keeping  upright  is  to 
go  onwards.  If  a  climber  on  an  Alpine  ice-slope  does 
not  put  all  his  power  into  the  effort  to  ascend,  he  can- 
not stick  at  the  place,  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees 
upon  ice,  but  down  he  is  bound  to  go.  Unless,  by  effort, 
he  overcomes  gravitation,  he  will  be  at  the  bottom  very 
soon.  And  so,  if  Christian  people  are  not  daily  getting 
better,  they  are  daily  getting  worse.  And  this  will  be 
the  end  of  it,  the  demon  that  was  cast  out  will  go  back 
to  his  house,  which  he  finds  '  swept  and  garnished ' 
indeed,  but  'empty,'  because  there  is  no  all-filling 
principle  of  love  to  Jesus  Christ  living  in  it.  He  finds 
it  empty.  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum ;  and  in  he  goes 
with  his  seven  friends ;  and  '  the  last  of  that  man  is 
worse  than  the  first.' 

There  are  two  alternatives  before  us.  I  would  that 
I  could  feel  for  myself  always,  and  that  you  felt  for 
yourselves,  that  one  or  other  of  them  must  describe  us 
as  professing  Christians.  Either  we  are  getting  more 
Christlike  or  we  are  daily  getting  less  so. 

III.  Lastly,  my  text,  in  its  relation  to  this  whole 
letter,  suggests  how  this  commendation  may  become 
ours. 

Notice  the  context.  Christ  says,  according  to  the 
improved  reading  which  will  be  found  in  the  Revised 
Version :  'I  know  thy  works,  and  love,  and  faith,  and 
service'  (or  ministry),  'and  patience,  and  that  thy  last 
works  are  more  than  the  first.*  That  is  to  say,  the  great 
way  by  which  we  can  secure  this  continual  growth  in  the 


220  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

manifestations  of  Christian  life  is  by  making  it  a  habit 
to  cultivate  what  produces  it,  viz.,  these  tvro  things, 
charity  (or  love)  and  faith. 

These  are  the  roots;  they  need  cultivating.  A 
Christian  man's  love  to  Jesus  Christ  will  not  grow  of 
itself  any  more  than  his  faith  will.  Unless  we  make  a 
conscience  by  prayer,  by  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  by 
subjecting  ourselves  to  the  influences  provided  for  the 
purpose  in  His  word,  of  strengthening  our  faith  and 
warming  our  love,  both  will  dwindle  and  become  fruit- 
less, bearing  •  nothing  but  leaves '  of  barren  though 
glittering  profession.  You  need  to  cultivate  faith  and 
love  just  as  much  as  to  cultivate  any  other  faculty  or  any 
other  habit.  Neglected,  they  are  sure  to  die.  If  they  are 
not  cultivated,  then  their  results  of  '  service '  (or  *  mini- 
stry ')  and  •  patience  *  are  sure  to  become  less  and  less. 

These  two,  faith  and  love,  are  the  roots ;  their  vitality 
determines  the  strength  and  abundance  of  the  fruit 
that  is  borne.  And  unless  you  dig  about  them  and 
take  care  of  them,  they  are  sure  to  die  in  the  unkindly 
soil  of  our  poor  rocky  hearts,  and  blown  upon  by  the 
nipping  winds  that  howl  round  the  world.  If  we  want 
our  works  to  increase  in  number  and  to  rise  in  quality, 
let  us  see  to  it  that  we  make  an  honest  habit  of  culti- 
vating that  which  is  their  producing  cause — love  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  faith  in  Him. 

And  then  the  text  still  further  suggests  another 
thought.  At  the  end  of  the  letter  I  read:  'He  that 
overcometh  and  keepeth  My  works  to  the  end,  to  him 
will  I  give,'  etc. 

Now  mark  what  were  called  'thy  works'  in  the 
beginning  of  the  letter  are  called  •  My  works '  in  its 
close.  And  it  is  laid  down  here  that  the  condition  of  vic- 
tory, and  the  prerequisite  to  a  throne  and  dominion. 


V.  19]  THE  FIRST  AND  LAST  WORKS     221 

is  the  perserering  and  pertinacious  keeping  unto  the 
end  of  these  which  are  now  called  'Christ's  works' 
— that  is  to  say,  if  we  want  that  the  Master  shall 
see  in  us  a  continuous  growth  towards  Himself,  then, 
in  addition  to  cultivating  the  habit  of  faith  and  love, 
we  must  cultivate  the  other  habit  of  looking  to  Him  as 
the  source  of  all  the  work  that  we  do  for  Him.  And 
when  we  have  passed  from  the  contemplation  of  our 
deeds  as  ours,  and  come  to  look  upon  all  that  we  do 
of  right  and  truth  and  beauty  as  Christ  working  in  us, 
then  there  is  a  certainty  of  our  work  increasing  in 
nobility  and  in  extent.  The  more  we  lose  ourselves 
and  feel  ourselves  to  be  but  instruments  in  Christ's 
hands,  the  more  shall  we  seek  to  fill  our  lives  with  all 
noble  service  ;  the  more  shall  we  be  able  to  adorn  them 
with  all  beauty  of  growing  likeness  to  Him  who  is 
their  source. 

There  is  still  another  thing  to  be  remembered,  and 
that  is,  that  if  we  are  to  have  this  progressive  godliness 
we  must  put  forth  continuous  effort  right  away  to  the 
very  close. 

We  come  to  no  point  in  our  lives  when  we  can  slack  off 
in  the  earnestness  of  our  endeavour  to  make  more  and 
more  of  Christ's  fulness  our  own.  But  to  the  very  last 
moment  of  life  there  is  a  possibility  of  still  larger 
victories,  and  the  corresponding  possibility  of  defeat. 
And,  therefore,  till  the  very  last,  effort,  built  upon 
faith  and  made  joyous  by  love  and  strong  by  the  grasp 
of  His  hand,  must  be  the  law  for  us.  It  is  the  man 
that  *  keeps  His  works '  and  persistently  strives  to  do 
them  *  to  the '  very  '  end '  that  •  overcomes.'  And  if  he 
slacks  one  moment  before  the  end  he  loses  the  blessing 
that  he  otherwise  would  have  attained. 

♦  Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching 


222  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

forth  unto  the  things  that  are  before,'  must  be  our 
motto  till  the  last.  We  must  ever  have  shining  far 
before  us  the  unattained  heights  which  it  may  yet  be 
possible  for  our  feet  to  tread.  We  must  never  let  habit 
stiffen  us  in  any  one  attitude  of  obedience,  nor  past 
failures  set  a  bound  to  our  anticipations  of  what  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  become  in  the  future.  We  must  never 
compare  ourselves  with  ourselves,  or  with  one  another. 
We  must  never  allow  low  thoughts,  and  the  poor 
average  of  Christian  life,  in  our  brethren,  to  come 
between  us  and  that  lofty  vision  of  perfect  likeness  to 
Jesus  Christ,  which  should  burn  before  us  all  as  no 
vain  dream,  but  as  the  will  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus 
concerning  us. 

And  if,  smitten  by  its  beauty,  and  drawn  by  its 
power,  and  daily  honestly  submitting  ourselves  to  the 
accumulating  influences  of  Christ's  long  experienced 
love,  and  enlisting  habit  upon  the  side  of  godliness, 
and  weakening  opposition  and  antagonism  by  long 
discipline  and  careful  pruning,  '  we  press  toward  the 
mark  for  the  prize  of  the  higher  calling  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ,'  we  shall  be  like  the  wise  householder  that 
keeps  the  best  wine  until  the  last, 

*  And  in  old  age,  when  others  fade, 
We  fruit  still  forth  shall  bring.' 

And  then  death  itself  will  but  continue  the  process  that 
has  blessed  and  ennobled  life,  and  will  lead  us  up  into 
another  state,  whereof  '  the  latest  works  shall  be  more 
than  the  first.' 


IV.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-POWER 

*He  that  overcometh,  and  keepeth  My  works  unto  the  end,  to  him  will  I  give 
power  over  the  nations :  27.  And  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron ;  as  the 
vessels  of  a  potter  shall  they  be  broken  to  shivers:  even  as  I  received  of  My  Father. 
23.  And  I  will  give  him  the  morning  star.'— Rev.  ii.  26-28. 

This  promise  to  the  victors  in  Thyatira  differs  from 
the  preceding  ones  in  several  remarkable  respects. 
If  you  will  observe,  the  summons  to  give  ear  to  '  what 
the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches '  precedes  the  promises 
in  the  previous  letters ;  here  it  follows  that  promise, 
and  that  order  is  observed  in  the  three  subsequent 
epistles.  Now  the  structure  of  all  these  letters  is  too 
careful  and  artistic  to  allow  of  the  supposition  that  the 
change  is  arbitrary  or  accidental.  There  must  be  some 
significance  in  it,  but  I  do  not  profess  to  be  ready  with 
the  explanation,  and  I  prefer  acknowledging  perplexity 
to  pretending  enlightenment. 

Then  there  is  another  remarkable  peculiarity  of 
this  letter,  viz.,  the  expansion  which  is  given  to  the 
designation  of  the  victor  as  '  He  that  overcometh  and 
keepeth  My  works  unto  the  end.'  Probably  not  un- 
connected with  that  expansion  is  the  other  peculiarity 
of  the  promise  here,  as  compared  with  its  precursors, 
viz.,  that  they  all  regard  simply  the  individual  victor 
and  promise  to  him  *  partaking  of  the  tree  of  life ' ;  a 
'crown  of  life';  immunity  from  'the  second  death'; 
'  the  hidden  manna ' ;  the  '  white  stone ' ;  and  the  '  new 
name  written ' ;  which,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  promises 
there,  belonged  to  Himself  alone;  but  here  the  field 
is  widened,  and  we  have  others  brought  in  on  whom 
the  victor  is  to  exercise  an  influence.  So,  then,  we 
enter  upon  a  new  phase  of  conceptions  of  that  future  life 
in  these  words,  which  not  only  dwell  upon  the  susten- 

228 


224  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

ance,  the  repose,  the  glory  that  belong  to  the  man 
himself,  but  look  upon  him  as  still  an  instrument 
in  Christ's  hands,  and  an  organ  for  carrying  out,  by 
His  activities,  Christ's  purposes  in  the  world.  So,  then, 
I  want  you  to  look  with  me  very  simply  at  the  ideas 
suggested  by  these  words. 

I.  We  have  the  victor's  authority. 

Now  the  promise  in  my  text  is  moulded  by  a  remem- 
brance of  the  great  words  of  the  second  psalm.  That 
psalm  stands  at  the  beginning  of  the  Psalter  as  a  kind 
of  prelude;  and  in  conjunction  with  its  companion 
psalm,  the  first,  is  a  summing  up  of  the  two  great 
factors  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Hebrews,  viz.,  the 
blessedness  in  the  keeping  of  the  law,  and  the  bright- 
ness of  the  hope  of  the  Messiah.  The  psalm  in  ques- 
tion deals  with  that  Messianic  hope  under  the  symbols 
of  an  earthly  conquering  monarch,  and  sets  forth 
His  dominion  as  established  throughout  the  whole 
earth.  And  our  letter  brings  this  marvellous  thought, 
that  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  are,  somehow 
or  other,  associated  with  Him  in  that  campaign  of 
conquest. 

Now,  there  is  much  in  these  words  which,  of  course, 
it  is  idle  for  us  to  attempt  to  expand  or  expound.  We 
can  only  wait,  as  we  gaze  upon  the  dim  brightness,  for 
experience  to  unlock  the  mystery.  But  there  is  also 
much  which,  if  we  will  reverently  ponder  it,  may 
stimulate  us  to  brave  conflict  and  persistent  diligence 
in  keeping  Christ's  commandments.  I,  for  my  part, 
believe  that  Scripture  is  the  only  source  of  such  know- 
ledge as  we  have  of  the  future  life ;  and  I  believe,  too, 
that  the  knowledge,  such  as  it  is,  which  we  derive  from 
Scripture  is  knowledge,  and  can  be  absolutely  trusted. 
And  so,  though  I  abjure  all  attempts  at  rhetorical 


VIL36.28]  THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-POWER     225 

setting  forth  of  the  details  of  this  mysterious  symbol, 
I  would  lay  it  upon  our  hearts.  It  is  not  the  less 
powerful  because  it  is  largely  inconceivable ;  and  the 
mystery,  the  darkness,  the  dimness,  may  be,  and  are 
part  of  the  revelation  and  of  the  light.  '  There  was  the 
hiding  of  His  power.' 

And  so,  notice  that  whatever  may  be  the  specific 
contents  of  such  a  promise  as  this,  the  general  form 
of  it  is  in  full  harmony  with  the  words  of  our  Lord 
whilst  He  was  on  earth.  Twice  over,  according  to  the 
gospel  narratives — once  in  connection  with  Peter's 
foolish  question,  •  What  shall  we  have  therefore  ? '  and 
once  in  a  still  more  sacred  connection,  at  the  table  on 
the  eve  of  Calvary — our  Lord  gave  His  trembling  dis- 
ciples this  great  promise  :  *  In  the  regeneration,  when 
the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,  ye 
also  shall  sit  on  twelve  thrones,  judging  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel.'  Make  all  allowance  that  you  like  for 
the  vesture  of  symbolism,  the  reality  that  lies  beneath 
is  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  truth,  has  pledged  Himself 
to  this,  that  His  servants  shall  be  associated  with  Him 
in  the  activity  of  His  royalty.  And  the  same  great 
thought,  which  we  only  spoil  when  we  try  to  tear 
apart  the  petals  which  remain  closed  until  the  sun 
shall  open  them,  underlies  the  twin  parables  of  the 
pounds  and  the  talents,  in  regard  to  each  of  which  we 
have,  'Thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things;  I 
will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things';  and,  linked 
along  with  the  promise  of  authority,  the  assurance  of 
union  with  the  Master,  '  Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord.'  So  this  book  of  the  Revelation  is  only  following 
in  the  footsteps  and  expanding  the  hints  of  Christ's 
own  teaching  when  it  triumphs  in  the  thought  that  we 
are  made  kings  and  priests  to  God;  when  it  points 

p 


226  REVELATION  [oh.ii. 

onwards  to  a  future  wherein — we  know  not  how,  but 
we  know,  if  we  believe  Him  when  He  speaks,  that  it 
shall  be  so — they  shall  reign  with  Him  for  ever  and 
ever. 

My  text  adds  further  the  image  of  a  conquering  cam- 
paign, of  a  sceptre  of  iron  crushing  down  antagonism, 
of  banded  opposition  broken  into  shivers,  *  as  a  potter's 
vessel'  dashed  upon  a  pavement  of  marble.  And  it 
says  that  in  that  final  conflict  and  final  conquest  they 
that  have  passed  into  the  rest  of  God,  and  have  dwelt 
with  Christ,  shall  be  with  Him,  the  armies  of  heaven 
following  Him,  clad  in  white  raiment  pure  and  glis- 
tening, and  with  Him  subduing,  ay!  and  converting 
into  loyal  love  the  antagonisms  of  earth.  I  abjure  all 
attempts  at  millenarian  prophecy,  but  I  point  to  this, 
that  all  the  New  Testament  teaching  converges  upon 
this  one  point,  that  the  Christ  who  came  to  die  shall 
come  again  to  reign,  and  that  He  shall  reign,  and  His 
servants  with  Him.  That  is  enough ;  and  that  is  all. 
For  all  the  rest  is  conjecture  and  fancy  and  sometimes 
folly ;  and  details  minimise,  and  do  not  magnify,  the 
great,  undetailed,  magnificent  fact. 

But  all  the  other  promises  deal  not  with  something 
in  the  remoter  future,  but  with  something  that  begins 
to  take  effect  the  moment  the  dust,  and  confusion, 
and  garments  rolled  in  blood,  of  the  battlefield  are 
swept  away.  At  one  instant  the  victors  are  fighting, 
at  the  next  they  are  partaking  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  and 
on  their  locks  lies  the  crown,  and  their  happy  lips  are 
feeding  upon  '  the  hidden  manna.'  And  so,  I  think, 
that  though,  no  doubt,  the  main  stress  of  the  promise 
of  authority  here  points  onwards,  as  our  Lord  Himself 
has  taught  us,  to  the  time  of  *  the  regeneration,  when 
the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,' 


vs.  26-28]  THE  VICTOR'S  LIP'E-POWER     227 

the  incidence  of  the  promise  is  not  to  be  exclusively 
confined  thereto.  There  must  be  something  in  the 
present  for  the  blessed  dead,  as  well  as  for  them  in  the 
future.  And  this  is,  that  they  are  united  with  Jesus 
Christ  in  His  present  activities,  and  through  Him,  and 
in  Him,  and  with  Him,  are  even  now  serving  Him. 
The  servant,  when  he  dies,  and  has  been  fitted  for  it, 
enters  at  once  on  his  government  of  the  ten  cities. 

Thus  this  promise  of  my  text,  in  its  deepest  meaning, 
corresponds  with  the  deepest  needs  of  a  man's  nature. 
For  we  can  never  be  at  rest  unless  we  are  at  work ;  and 
a  heaven  of  doing  nothing  is  a  heaven  of  ennui  and 
weariness.  Whatever  sneers  may  have  been  cast  at 
the  Christian  conception  of  the  future,  which  find 
vindication,  one  is  sorry  to  say,  in  many  popular 
representations  and  sickly  bits  of  hymns,  the  New 
Testament  notion  of  what  that  future  life  is  to  be  is 
noble  with  all  energy,  and  fruitful  with  all  activity, 
and  strenuous  with  all  service.  This  promise  of  my 
text  comes  in  to  supplement  the  three  preceding.  They 
were  addressed  to  the  legitimate,  wearied  longings  for 
rest  and  fulness  of  satisfaction  for  oneself.  This  is 
addressed  to  the  deeper  and  nobler  longing  for  larger 
service.  And  the  words  of  my  text,  whatever  dim 
glory  they  may  partially  reveal,  as  accruing  to  the 
victor  in  the  future,  do  declare  that,  when  he  passes 
beyond  the  grave,  there  will  be  waiting  for  him  nobler 
work  to  do  than  any  that  he  ever  has  done  here. 

But  let  us  not  forget  that  all  this  access  of  power 
and  enlargement  of  opportunity  are  a  consequence  of 
Christ's  royalty  and  Christ's  conquering  rule.  That  is 
to  say,  whatever  we  have  in  the  future  we  have 
because  we  are  knit  to  Him,  and  all  our  service  there, 
as  all  our  blessedness  here,  flows  from  our  union  with 


228  REVELATION  [ch.ii. 

that  Lord.  So  when  He  says,  as  in  the  words  that  I 
have  already  quoted,  that  His  servants  shall  sit  on 
thrones,  He  presents  Himself  as  on  the  central  throne. 
The  authority  of  the  steward  over  the  ten  cities  is  but 
a  consequence  of  the  servant's  entrance  into  the  joy 
of  the  Lord.  "Whatever  there  lies  in  the  heavens,  the 
germ  of  it  all  is  this,  that  we  are  as  Christ,  so  closely 
identified  with  Him  that  we  are  like  Him,  and  share 
in  all  His  possessions.  He  says  to  each  of  us,  '  All 
Mine  is  thine.'  He  has  taken  part  of  our  flesh  and 
blood  that  we  may  share  in  His  Spirit.  The  bride  is 
endowed  with  the  wealth  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the 
crowns  that  are  placed  on  the  heads  of  the  redeemed 
are  the  crown  which  Christ  Himself  has  received  as 
the  reward  of  His  Cross — '  even  as  I  have  received  of 
My  Father.' 

II.  Note  the  victor's  starry  splendour. 

The  second  symbol  of  my  text  is  difficult  of  interpre- 
tation, like  the  first:  'I  will  give  him  the  morning 
star.'  Now,  no  doubt,  throughout  Scripture  a  star  is  a 
symbol  of  royal  dominion;  and  many  would  propose 
so  to  interpret  it  in  the  present  case.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  whilst  that  explanation — which  makes  the 
second  part  of  our  promise  simply  identical  with  the 
former,  though  under  a  different  garb— does  justice  to 
one  part  of  the  symbol,  it  entirely  omits  the  other. 
For  the  emphasis  is  here  laid  on  '  morning '  rather 
than  on  '  star.'  It  is  *  the  morning  star,'  not  any  star 
that  blazes  in  the  heavens,  that  is  set  forth  here  as 
a  symbolical  representation  of  the  victor's  condition. 
Then  another  false  scent,  as  it  were,  on  which  interpre- 
tations have  gone,  seems  to  me  to  be  that,  taking  into 
account  the  fact  that  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Revela- 
tion our  Lord  is  Himself  described  as  *  the  bright  and 


vs.  26-28]  THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-POWER     229 

morning  star,'  they  bring  this  promise  down  simply  to 
mean, '  I  will  give  him  Myself.'  Now  though  it  is  quite 
true  that,  in  the  deepest  of  all  views,  Jesus  Christ  Him- 
self is  the  gift  as  well  as  the  giver  of  all  these  seven- 
fold promises,  yet  the  propriety  of  representation  seems 
to  me  to  forbid  that  He  should  here  say,  •  I  will  give 
them  Myself  1 ' 

So  I  think  we  must  fall  back  upon  what  any  touch 
of  poetic  imagination  would  at  once  suggest  to  be  the 
meaning  of  the  promise,  that  it  is  the  dawning 
splendour  of  that  planet  of  hope  and  morning,  the 
harbinger  of  day,  which  we  are  to  lay  hold  of.  Hebrew 
prophets,  long  before,  had  spoken  of  Lucifer,  '  light- 
bringer,' '  the  son  of  the  morning.'  Many  a  poet  sang 
of  it  before  Milton  with  his 

'  Hesperus,  that  led  the  starry  host, 
Rode  brightest.' 

So  that  I  think  we  are  just  to  lay  hold  of  the  thought 
that  the  starry  splendour,  the  beauty  and  the  lustre 
that  will  be  poured  upon  the  victor  is  that  which  is 
expressed  by  this  symbol  here.  What  that  lustre  will 
consist  in  it  becomes  us  not  to  say.  That  future  keeps 
its  secret  well,  but  that  it  shall  be  the  perfecting  of 
human  nature  up  to  the  most  exquisite  and  consum- 
mate height  of  which  it  is  capable,  and  the  enlarge- 
ment of  it  beyond  all  that  human  experience  here 
can  conceive,  we  may  peaceably  anticipate  and  quietly 
trust. 

Only,  note  the  advance  here  on  the  previous  promises 
is  as  conspicuous  as  in  the  former  part  of  this  great 
promise.  There  the  Christian  man's  influence  and 
authority  were  set  forth  under  the  emblem  of  regal 
dominion.     Here  they  are  set  forth  under  the  emblem 


280  REVELATION  [ch.  ii. 

of  lustrous  splendour.  It  is  the  spectators  that  see  the 
glory  of  the  beam  that  comes  from  the  star.  And  this 
promise,  like  the  former,  implies  that  in  that  future 
there  will  be  a  sphere  in  which  perfected  spirits  may 
ray  out  their  light,  and  where  they  may  gladden  and 
draw  some  eyes  by  their  beams.  I  have  no  word  to 
say  as  to  the  sky  in  which  the  rays  of  that  star  may 
shine,  but  I  do  feel  that  the  very  essence  of  this  great 
representation  is  that  Christian  souls  in  the  future, 
as  in  the  present,  will  stand  forth  as  the  visible  embodi- 
ments of  the  glory  and  lustre  of  the  unseen  God. 

Further,  remember  that  this  image,  like  the  former, 
traces  up  the  lustre,  as  that  traced  the  royalty,  to  com- 
munion with  Christ,  and  to  impartation  from  Him. 
'  /  will  give  him  the  morning  star.'  We  shall  shine  as 
the  'brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  as  the  stars  for 
ever,'  as  Daniel  said — not  by  inherent  but  by  reflected 
light.  We  are  not  suns,  but  planets,  that  move  round 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and  flash  with  His  beauty. 

III.  Lastly,  mark  the  condition  of  the  authority  and 
of  the  lustre. 

Here  I  would  say  a  word  about  the  remarkable 
expansion  of  the  designation  of  the  victor,  to  which  I 
have  already  referred:  *He  that  overcometh,  and 
keepeth  My  works  unto  the  end.'  We  do  not  know 
why  that  expansion  was  put  in,  in  reference  to  Thyatira 
only,  but  if  you  will  glance  over  the  letter  you  will  see 
that  there  is  more  than  usual  about  works — works  to 
be  repented  of,  or  works  which  make  the  material  of  a 
final  retribution  and  judgment. 

Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  the  expanded 
designation  here,  the  lesson  that  it  reads  to  us  is  a 
very  significant  and  a  very  important  one.  Bring  the 
metaphor  of  a  victor  down  to  the  plain,  hard,  prose  fact 


vs.  26-28]  THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-POWER     231 

of  doing  Christ's  work  right  away  to  the  end  of  life. 
Strip  off  the  rhetoric  of  the  fight,  and  it  comes  down 
to  this — dogged,  persistent  obedience  to  Christ's  com- 
mandments. 'He  that  keepeth  My  works'  does  not 
appeal  to  the  imagination  as  *He  that  overcometh' 
does.  But  it  is  the  explanation  of  the  victory,  and  one 
that  we  all  need  to  lay  to  heart. 

'  My  works ' :  that  means  the  works  that  He  enjoins. 
No  doubt ;  but  look  at  a  verse  before  my  text :  *  I  will 
give  unto  every  one  of  you  according  to  your  works.' 
That  is,  the  works  that  yo  do,  and  Christ's  works  are 
not  only  those  which  He  enjo^  i,  but  those  of  which  He 
Himself  set  the  pattern.  He  will  'give  according  to 
works ' ;  He  will  give  authority ;  give  the  morning  star. 
That  is  to  say,  the  life  which  has  been  moulded  accord- 
ing to  Christ's  pattern,  and  shaped  in  obedience  to 
Christ's  commandments  is  the  life  which  is  capable  of 
being  granted  participation  in  His  dominion,  and  in- 
vested with  reflected  lustre.  If  here  we  do  His  work 
we  shall  be  able  to  do  it  more  fully  yonder.  'The 
works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also.'  That  is  the  law  for 
life — ay,  and  it  is  the  promise  for  heaven.  '  And  greater 
works  than  these  shall  he  do,  because  I  go  to  My 
Father.'  When  we  have  come  to  partial  conformity 
with  Him  here  we  may  hope — and  only  then  have  we 
the  right  to  hope — for  entire  assimilation  to  Him  here- 
after. If  here,  from  this  dim  spot  which  men  call  earth, 
and  amid  the  confusion  and  dust  and  distances  of  this 
present  life,  we  look  to  Him,  and  with  unveiled  faces 
behold  Him,  and  here,  in  degree  and  part,  are  being 
changed  from  glory  to  glory,  there  He  will  turn  His 
face  upon  us,  and,  beholding  it,  in  righteousness, '  we 
shall  be  satisfied  when  we  awake  with  His  likeness.' 

Brethren,  it  is  for  us  to  choose  whether  we  shall  share 


232  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

in  Christ's  dominion  or  be  crushed  by  His  iron  sceptre. 
It  is  for  us  to  choose  whether,  moulding  our  lives  after 
His  will  and  pattern,  we  shall  hereafter  be  made  like 
Him  in  completeness.  It  is  for  us  to  choose  whether, 
seeing  Him  here,  we  shall,  when  the  brightness  of  His 
coming  draws  near,  be  flooded  with  gladness,  or 
whether  we  shall  call  upon  the  rocks  and  the  hills  to 
cover  us  from  the  face  of  Him  that  sitteth  on  the 
Throne.  Time  is  the  mother  of  Eternity.  To-day 
moulds  to-morrow,  and  when  all  the  to-days  and 
to-morrows  have  become  yesterdays,  they  will  have 
determined  our  destiny,  because  they  will  have  settled 
our  characters.  Let  us  keep  Christ's  commandments, 
and  we  shall  be  invested  with  dignity  and  illuminated 
with  glory,  and  entrusted  to  work,  far  beyond  anything 
that  we  can  conceive  here,  though,  in  their  farthest  reach 
and  most  dazzling  brightness,  these  are  but  the  con- 
tinuation and  the  perfecting  and  the  feeble  beginnings 
of  earthly  conflict  and  service. 


THE  LORD  OF  THE  SPIRITS  AND  THE  STARS 

' .  .  .  These  things  saith  He  that  hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God,  and  the  seven 
stars.'— Rev.  iii.  1. 

The  titles  by  which  our  Lord  speaks  of  Himself  in  the 
letters  to  the  seven  churches  are  chosen  to  correspond 
with  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  community  ad- 
dressed. The  correspondence  can  usually  be  observed 
without  difficulty,  and  in  this  case  is  very  obvious. 
The  church  in  Sardis,  to  which  Christ  is  presented 
under  this  aspect  as  the  possessor  of  '  the  seven  Spirits 
of  God  and  the  seven  stars,'  had  no  heresies  needing 
correction.  It  had  not  life  enough  to  produce  even 
such  morbid  secretions.      Neither  weeds  nor  flowers 


V.  1]       LORD  OF  SPIRITS  AND  STARS      283 

grow  in  winter.  There  may  be  a  lower  depth  than  the 
condition  of  things  when  people  are  all  thinking,  and 
some  of  them  thinking  wrongly,  about  Christian  truth. 
Better  the  heresies  of  Ephesus  and  Thyatira  than  the 
acquiescent  deadness  of  Sardis. 

It  had  no  immoralities.  The  gross  corruptions  of 
some  in  Pergamum  had  no  parallel  there.  Philadelphia 
had  none,  for  it  kept  close  to  its  Lord,  and  Sardis  is 
rebuked  for  none,  because  its  evil  was  deeper  and 
sadder.  It  was  not  flagrantly  corrupt,  it  was  only — 
dead. 

Of  course  it  had  no  persecutions.  Faithful  Smyrna 
had  tribulation  unto  death,  hanging  like  a  thunder- 
cloud overhead,  and  Philadelphia,  beloved  of  the  Lord, 
was  drawing  near  its  hour  of  trial.  But  Sardis  had 
not  life  enough  to  be  obnoxious.  Why  should  the 
world  trouble  itself  about  a  dead  church  ?  It  exactly 
answers  the  world's  purpose,  and  is  really  only  a  bit 
of  the  world  under  another  name. 

To  such  a  church  comes  flaming  in  upon  its  stolid 
indifference  this  solemn  and  yet  glad  vision  of  the  Lord 
of  the  '  seven  Spirits  of  God,'  and  of  '  the  seven  stars.' 

I.  Let  us  think  of  the  condition  of  the  church  which 
especially  needs  this  vision. 

It  is  all  summed  up  in  that  judgment,  pronounced 
by  Him  who  'knows  its  works':  'Thou  hast  a  name 
that  thou  livest,  and  art  dead.'  No  works  either  good 
or  bad  are  enumerated,  though  there  were  some,  which 
He  gathers  together  in  one  condemnation,  as  '  not 
perfect  before  God.' 

We  are  not  to  take  that  word  *  dead '  in  the  fullest 
sense  of  which  it  is  capable,  as  we  shall  see  presently. 
But  let  us  remember  how,  when  on  earth,  the  Lord, 
whose  deep  words  on  that  matter  we  owe  mainly  to 


234  REVELATION  [ch.  in. 

John,  taught  that  all  men  were  either  living,  because 
they  had  been  made  alive  by  Him,  or  dead — how  He 
said, '  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  and  drink  the  blood  of 
the  Son  of  man,  ye  have  no  life  in  you,'  and  how  one 
of  the  main  ideas  of  John's  whole  teaching  is,  '  He  that 
hath  the  Son  hath  life.'  This  remembrance  will  help 
us  to  give  the  words  their  true  meaning.  Death  is  the 
condition  of  those  who  are  separated  from  Him,  and 
not  receiving  from  Him  the  better  life  into  their  spirits 
by  communion  and  faith. 

Into  this  condition  the  church  in  Sardis  had  fallen. 
People  and  bishop  had  lost  their  hold  on  Him.  Their 
hearts  beat  with  no  vigorous  love  to  Him,  but  only 
feebly  throbbed  with  a  pulsation  which  even  His  hand 
laid  on  their  bosoms  could  scarcely  detect.  Their 
thoughts  had  no  clear  apprehension  of  Him  or  of  His 
love.  Their  communion  with  Him  had  ceased.  Their 
lives  had  no  radiant  beauty  of  self-sacrifice  for  Christ's 
sake.    Their  Christianity  was  dying  out. 

But  this  death  was  not  entire,  as  is  seen  from  the 
fact  that  in  the  next  verse  '  ready  to  die '  is  the  ex- 
pression applied  to  some  among  them,  or  perhaps  to 
some  lingering  works  which  still  survived.  They  were 
at  the  point  of  death,  moribund,  with  much  of  their 
spiritual  life  extinct,  but  here  and  there  a  spark  among 
the  ashes,  which  His  eye  saw,  and  His  breath  could 
fan  into  a  flame.  Some  works  still  survived,  though 
not  'perfect,'  shrunken  and  sickly  like  the  blanched 
shoots  of  a  plant  feebly  growing  in  a  dark  cellar. 

In  some  animals  of  low  organisation  you  may  see 
muscular  movements  after  life  is  extinct.  So  churches 
and  individual  Christians  may  keep  on  performing 
Christian  work  for  a  time  after  the  true  impulse  that 
should  produce  it  has  ceased.  A  train  will  run  for  some 


V.  1]      LORD  OF  SPIRITS  AND  STARS      235 

distance  after  the  steam  has  been  shut  off.  Institu- 
tions last  after  the  life  is  out  of  them,  for  use  and 
wont  keeps  up  a  routine  of  action,  though  the  true 
motive  is  dead,  and  men  may  go  on  for  long,  nominal 
adherents  of  a  cause  to  which  they  are  bound  by  no 
living  conviction.  How  much  of  your  Christian  activity 
is  the  manifestation  of  life,  and  how  much  of  it  is  the 
ghastly  twitchings  of  a  corpse  under  galvanism  ? 

This  death  was  unseen  but  by  the  flame-eyed  Christ. 
These  people  in  Sardis  had  '  a  name  to  live.'  They  had 
a  high  reputation  among  the  Asiatic  churches  for 
vigorous  Christian  character.  And  they  themselves, 
no  doubt,  would  be  very  much  astonished  at  the  sledge- 
hammer blow  of  this  judgment  of  their  state.  One 
can  fancy  them  saying — '  We  dead !  Do  not  we  stand 
high  among  our  brethren,  have  we  not  this  and  the 
other  Christian  work  among  us?  Have  we  not  pro- 
phesied in  Thy  name  ? '  Yes,  and  the  surest  sign  of 
spiritual  death  is  unconsciousness.  Paralysis  is  not 
felt.  Mortification  is  painless.  Frost-bitten  limbs  are 
insensitive.  They  only  tingle  when  life  is  coming  back 
to  them.  When  a  man  says  I  am  asleep,  he  is  more 
than  half  awake. 

One  characteristic  of  their  death  is  that  they  have 
forgotten  what  they  were  in  better  and  happier  times, 
and  therefore  need  the  exhortation,  *  Remember  how 
thou  hast  received  and  didst  hear.'  They  have  fallen 
so  far  that  the  height  on  which  they  once  stood  is  out 
of  their  sight,  and  they  are  content  to  lie  on  the  muddy 
flat  at  its  base.  No  stings  from  conscious  decline  dis- 
turb them.  They  are  too  far  gone  for  that.  The 
same  round  of  formal  Christian  service  which  marked 
their  decline  from  their  brethren  hid  it  from  themselves. 

That  is  a  solemn  fact  worth  making  very  clear  to 


236  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

ourselves,  that  the  profoundest  spiritual  decline  may 
be  going  on  in  us,  and  we  be  all  unconscious  of  it. 
•  Samson  wist  not  that  his  strength  was  departed  from 
him,'  and  in  utter  ignorance  he  tried  to  perform  his 
old  feats,  only  to  find  his  weakness.  So  the  life  of  our 
spirits  may  have  ebbed  away,  and  we  know  not  how 
much  blood  we  have  lost  until  we  try  to  raise  ourselves 
and  sink  back  fainting.  Like  some  rare  essence  in  a 
partially  closed  vessel,  put  away  in  some  drawer,  we 
go  to  take  it  out  and  find  nothing  but  a  faint  odour, 
a  rotten  cork,  and  an  empty  phial.  The  sure  way  to 
lose  the  precious  elixir  of  a  Christian  life  is  to  shut 
it  up  in  our  hearts.  No  life  is  maintained  without 
food,  air,  and  exercise.  We  must  live  on  the 
bread  of  God  which  came  down  from  heaven,  and 
breathe  the  breath  of  His  life-giving  Spirit,  and  use 
all  our  power  for  Him,  or  else,  for  all  our  name  to  live, 
and  our  shrunken,  feeble  imitations  of  the  motions  of 
life,  the  eyes  which  are  as  a  flame  of  fire  will  see  the 
sad  reality,  and  the  lips  into  which  grace  is  poured 
will  have  to  speak  over  us  the  one  grim  word — dead. 

II.  Notice  now  the  thought  of  Christ  presented  to 
such  a  church.  *  He  that  hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God 
and  the  seven  stars.* 

The  greater  part  of  the  attributes  with  which  our 
Lord  speaks  of  Himself  in  the  beginnings  of  the  seven 
letters  to  the  churches  are  drawn  from  the  features  of 
the  majestic  vision  of  the  Christ  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book.  But  nothing  there  corresponds  to  the  first 
clause  of  this  description,  and  so  far  this  designation 
is  singular.  There  are,  however,  three  other  places  in 
the  Apocalypse  which  throw  much  light  on  it,  and  to 
these  we  may  turn  for  a  moment.  In  the  apostolic 
salutation  at  the  beginning  of  the  book  (i.  4)  John  in- 


T.  1]      LORD  OF  SPIRITS  AND  STARS      287 

yokes  mercy  and  grace  on  the  Asiatic  churches  from 
the  Eternal  Father,  'and  from  the  seven  Spirits  which 
are  before  the  throne,'  and  from  Christ,  the  faithful 
witness.  In  the  grand  vision  of  heavenly  realities 
(ch.  iv.)  the  seer  beholds  burning  before  the  throne 
seven  lamps  of  fire,  'which  are  the  seven  Spirits  of 
God,'  and  when,  in  the  later  portion  of  the  same,  he 
beholds  the  conquering  Lamb,  who  looses  the  seals  of 
the  book  of  the  world's  history,  he  sees  Him  having 
'  seven  eyes  which  are  the  seven  Spirits  of  God,  sent 
forth  into  all  the  earth,'  an  echo  of  old  words  of  the 
same  prophet  who  had  been  John's  precursor  in  the 
symbolic  use  of  the  '  candlestick,'  as  representing  the 
Church,  and  who  speaks  of '  the  seven  eyes  of  the  Lord 
which  run  to  and  fro  throughout  the  whole  earth  * 
(Zech.  iv.  10). 

Clearly  in  all  these  passages  we  have  the  same  idea 
presented  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  in  the  completeness 
and  manifoldness  of  its  sevenfold  energies,  conceived 
of  as  possessed  and  bestowed  by  the  Lamb  of  God,  the 
Lord  of  all  the  churches.  The  use  of  the  plural  and 
the  number  seven  is  remarkable,  but  quite  explicable, 
on  the  ground  of  the  sacred  number  expressing  per- 
fection, and  not  inconsistent  with  personal  unity, 
underlying  the  variety  of  manifestations.  The  per- 
sonality of  the  Spirit  is  sufficiently  set  forth  by  that 
refrain  in  each  epistle,  '  Let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
saith  to  the  churches.'  The  divinity  of  the  Spirit  is 
plainly  involved  in  the  triple  benediction  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  letter,  and  by  the  sacred  place  in  which 
there  the  Spirit  is  invoked,  midmost  between  the  Father 
and  the  Son.  The  seven  lamps  before  the  throne  speak 
of  the  flaming  perfection  of  that  Spirit  of  burning 
conceived  of  as  '  immanent '  in  the  Divine  nature.    The 


288  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

seven  eyes  sent  forth  into  all  the  earth  speak  of  the 
perfectness  of  the  energies  of  that  same  Spirit,  con- 
ceived of  as  flashing  and  gleaming  through  all  the 
world.  And  the  great  words  of  our  text  agree  with 
that  vision  of  these  seven  as  being  the  eyes  of  the 
Lamb  slain,  in  telling  us  that  that  fiery  Spirit  is  poured 
out  on  men  by  the  Lord,  who  had  to  die  before  He 
could  cast  fire  on  earth. 

This  is  the  thought  which  a  dead  or  decaying  church 
needs  most.  There  is  a  Spirit  which  gives  life,  and 
Christ  is  the  Lord  of  that  Spirit.  The  whole  fulness 
of  the  Divine  energies  is  gathered  in  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  this  is  His  chiefest  work — to  breathe  into  our 
deadness  the  breath  of  life.  Many  other  blessed  offices 
are  His,  and  many  other  names  belong  to  Him.  He  is 
*  the  Spirit  of  adoption,'  He  is  *  the  Spirit  of  Supplica- 
tion,' He  is  *  the  Spirit  of  Holiness,'  He  is  '  the  Spirit  of 
Wisdom,*  He  is  '  the  Spirit  of  Power  and  of  Love  and 
of  a  sound  mind,'  He  is  'the  Spirit  of  Counsel  and 
Might ' ;  but  highest  of  all  is  the  name  which  expresses 
His  mightiest  work,  •  the  Spirit  of  Life.'  The  flaming 
lamps  tell  of  His  flashing  brightness ;  the  seven  eyes 
of  His  watchful  Omniscience,  and  other  symbols  witness 
the  various  sides  of  His  gracious  activity  on  men's 
hearts.  The  anointing  oil  was  consecrated  from  gold 
to  express  His  work  of  causing  men's  whole  powers  to 
move  sweetly  and  without  friction  in  the  service  of 
God,  and  of  feeding  the  flame  of  devotion  in  the  heart. 
The  '  water '  spoke  of  cleansing  efficacy,  as  *  fire '  of 
melting,  transforming,  purifying  power.  But  the 
•rushing  mighty  wind,'  blowing  where  it  listeth,  un- 
sustained,  and  free,  visible  only  in  its  effects,  and  yet 
heard  by  every  ear  that  is  not  deaf,  sometimes  soft  and 
low,  as  the  respiration  of  a  sleeping  child,  sometimes 


V.  1]      LORD  OF  SPIRITS  AND  STARS     239 

loud  and  strong  as  the  storm,  is  His  best  emblem.  The 
very  name  'the  Spirit'  emphasises  that  aspect  of  His 
work  in  which  He  is  conceived  of  as  the  source  of  life. 
This  is  the  thought  of  His  working  which  comes  with 
most  glad  yet  solemn  meaning  to  Christian  people 
who  feel  how  low  their  life  has  sunk.  This  is  the  true 
antidote  to  the  deadness,  so  real  and  common  among 
all  communions  now,  however  it  is  skimmed  over  and 
hidden  by  a  kind  of  film  of  activity. 

Christ  has  this  sevenfold  Spirit.  That  means  first  that 
the  same  peaceful  dove  which  floated  down  from  the 
open  heavens  on  His  meek  head,  just  raised  from  the 
baptismal  stream,  fills  now  and  for  ever  His  whole 
humanity  with  its  perfect  energies.  *  God  giveth  not 
the  Spirit  by  measure  unto  him.'  How  marvellous 
that  there  is  a  manhood  to  which  the  whole  fulness  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  can  be  imparted,  an  '  earthen  vessel,' 
capacious  enough  to  hold  this  '  treasure ' !  How  mar- 
vellous that  there  is  a  Son  of  man,  who  is  likewise  Son 
of  God,  and  has  the  Spirit,  not  only  for  His  own  human 
perfecting,  but  to  shed  it  forth  on  all  who  love  Him ! 
It  is  the  slain  Lamb,  who  has  the  seven  Spirits  of  God. 
That  is  to  say,  it  was  impossible  that  the  fulness  of 
spiritual  influence  could  be  poured  out  quickening  on 
men  until  Christ  had  died,  and  by  His  death  He  has 
become  the  dispenser  to  the  world  of  the  principle  of 
life.  In  His  hands  is  the  gift.  He  is  the  Lord  of  the 
Spirit,  ascended  up  to  give  to  men  according  to  the 
measure  of  their  capacity,  of  that  Spirit  which  He  has 
received,  until  we  all  come  to  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.  How  unlike  the  relation 
of  other  teachers  to  their  disciples !  Their  spirit  is  the 
very  thing  they  cannot  give.  They  can  impart  teach- 
ing, they  can  give  a  method  and  principles,  and  a  certain 


J40  REVELATION  [oh.  iii. 

direction  to  the  mind.  They  can  train  imitators.  But 
they  are  like  Elijah,  knowing  not  if  their  spirit  will 
rest  on  their  successors,  and  sure  that,  if  it  do,  it  has 
not  been  their  gift.  The  departing  prophet  had  to  say 
to  the  petition  for  an  elder  son's  legacy  of  his  spirit, 
'  Thou  hast  asked  a  hard  thing,'  but  Christ  ascending 
let  that  gift  fall  from  His  uplifted  hands  of  blessing, 
and  the  dove  that  abode  on  Him  fluttered  downwards 
from  the  hiding  cloud,  to  rest  on  the  Apostles'  heads, 
as  they  steadfastly  gazed  up  into  heaven.  Therefore 
they  went  back  to  Jerusalem  with  joy,  even  before  the 
fuller  gift  of  Pentecost. 

Pentecost  was  but  a  transitory  sign  of  a  perpetual 
gift.  The  rushing  wind  died  into  calm,  and  the  flicker- 
ing tongues  of  fire  had  faded  before  the  spectators 
reached  the  place.  Nor  did  the  miracle  of  utterance 
last  either.  But  whilst  all  that  is  past,  the  substance 
remains.  The  fire  of  Pentecost  has  not  died  down  into 
chilly  embers,  nor  have  the  *  rivers  of  living  water, 
promised  by  the  lips  of  incarnate  truth,  been  swallowed 
up  in  the  sands  or  failed  at  their  source.  He  is  per- 
petually bestowing  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  His  Church. 
We  are  only  too  apt  to  forget  the  present  activity  of 
our  ascended  Lord.  We  think  of  His  mighty  work  as 
'  finished '  on  the  Cross,  and  do  not  conceive  clearly  and 
strongly  enough  His  continuous  work  which  is  being 
done,  now  and  ever,  on  the  throne.  That  work  is  not 
only  His  priestly  intercession  and  representation  of  us 
in  heaven,  but  is  also  His  working  on  earth  in  the 
bestowal  on  all  His  followers  of  that  Divine  Spirit  to 
be  the  life  of  their  lives  and  the  fountain  of  all  their 
holiness,  wisdom,  strength,  and  joy.  For  ever  is  He 
near  us,  ready  to  quicken  and  to  bless.  He  will  breathe 
in  silent  ways  grace  and  power  into  us,  and  when  life 


V.  1]      LORD  OF  SPIRITS  AND  STARS      241 

if  low,  He  will  pour  a  fuller  tide  into  our  veins.  He 
knows  all  our  deadness  and  He  can  cure  it  all.  He  is 
Himself  the  life,  and  He  is  the  Lord  and  giver  of  life, 
because  the  seven  Spirits  of  God  sent  forth  into  all 
the  earth  are  the  seven  eyes  of  the  slain  Lamb. 

One  great  channel  through  which  spiritual  life  is 
imparted  to  a  dying  church  is  suggested  by  the  other 
part  of  the  description  of  our  Lord  here  as  having  •  the 
seven  stars.'  The  '  stars '  are  the  '  angels  of  the 
churches,'  by  whom  we  are  probably  to  understand 
their  bishops  and  pastors.  If  so,  then  we  have  a  strik- 
ing thought,  symbolised  by  the  juxtaposition.  Christ, 
as  it  were,  holds  in  the  one  hand  the  empty  vessels, 
and  in  the  other  the  brimming  cup,  from  which  He 
will  pour  out  the  supply  for  their  emptiness. 

The  lesson  taught  us  is,  that  in  a  dead  church  the 
teachers  mostly  partake  of  the  deadness,  and  are  re- 
sponsible for  it.  But,  further,  we  learn  that  Christ's 
way  of  reviving  a  decaying  and  all  but  effete  church 
is  of tenest  by  filling  single  men  full  of  His  Spirit,  and 
then  sending  them  out  to  kindle  a  soul  under  the  ribs 
of  death.  So  Luther  brought  back  life  to  the  churches 
in  his  day.  So  the  Wesleys  brought  about  the  great 
evangelical  revival  of  last  century.  So  let  us  pray 
that  it  may  be  again  in  our  day  when  another  century 
is  drawing  near  its  end,  and  the  love  of  many  has 
grown  cold. 

If  we  regard  the  *  angels '  as  being  but  ideal  repre- 
sentatives of  the  churches  themselves,  then  we  may 
gather  from  the  juxtaposition  of  the  two  clauses  a 
lesson  which  is  ever  true.  In  Christ's  one  hand  is  the 
perfect  supply  for  all  our  need,  wisdom  for  our  blind- 
ness, might  to  clothe  our  weakness,  righteousness  for 
our  sin,  life  to  flood  our  drooping  souls.    In  Christ's 

Q 


242  REVELATION  [ch.  in. 

other  hand  He  holds  us  all,  and  surely  He  will  not  leave 
us  empty  while  we  are  within  His  arm's  length  of  such 
fulness.  Let  us  look  to  Him  alone  for  all  we  need,  and 
rejoice  to  know  that  we,  held  in  His  grasp,  are  near 
His  heart,  the  homo  of  infinite  love,  and  near  His  hand, 
the  source  of  infinite  supply  of  strength  and  grace. 

III.  Consider,  now,  the  practical  uses  of  these 
thoughts. 

That  vision  should  shame  us  into  penitent  conscious- 
ness of  our  own  deadness.  When  we  contrast  the  little 
life  we  possess  with  the  abundance  waiting  to  be 
given,  like  the  poor  scanty  supply  in  some  choked  mill- 
stream  compared  with  the  full-flashing  store  in  the 
brimming  river,  we  may  well  be  stricken  with  shame. 
So  much  offered  and  so  little  possessed ;  such  fiery 
energy  of  love  possible,  and  poor  tepid  feeling,  actual ! 
Such  a  mighty  breath  of  God  blowing  all  about  us,  and 
we  lying  as  if  enchanted  and  becalmed,  with  scarce 
wind  enough  to  keep  our  idle  sails  from  flapping. 
There  in  Jesus  Christ  is  the  measure  of  what  we  might 
possess,  and  the  pattern  of  what  we  should  possess — 
does  it  not  bow  us  in  penitence,  because  of  what  we  do 
possess  ? 

But  while  ashamed  and  penitent,  we  should  be  kept 
by  that  vision  from  despondent  thoughts,  as  if  the 
future  could  never  be  different  from  the  past.  It  is  not 
good  to  think  too  much  of  our  failure  and  emptiness, 
lest  penitence  darken  into  despair,  and  shame  cut  the 
sinews  of  our  souls  and  unfit  them  for  all  brave  en- 
deavour. Let  us  think  of  Christ's  fulness  and  hope,  as 
well  as  repent. 

Let  it  stir  us  too  to  seek  for  the  reason  why  we  have 
not  more  of  Christ's  life.  What  is  the  film  which  pre- 
vents the  light  from  reaching  our  eyes  ?    I  remember 


v.l]  WALKING  IN  WHITE  243 

once  seeing  by  a  roadside  a  stone  trough  for  cattle  to 
drink  from  empty,  because  tlie  pipe  from  which  it  was 
fed  was  stopped  by  a  great  plug  of  ice.  That  is  the 
reason  why  many  of  our  hearts  are  so  empty  of  Christ's 
Spirit.  We  have  plugged  the  channel  with  a  mass  of 
ice.  Close  communion  with  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only 
means  of  possessing  His  Spirit.  With  penitence  let  us 
go  back  to  Him,  and  let  us  hold  fast  by  His  hand.  If 
we  listen  to  Him,  trust  Him,  keep  our  minds  and 
hearts  attent  on  Him,  He  will  breathe  on  us  as  of  old, 
and  as  we  hear  Him  say,  '  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost,' 
a  diviner  life  will  pass  into  our  veins,  and  the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  will  make  us  free  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death. 


WALKING  IN  WHITE 

'  Thou  hast  a  few  names  even  in  Sardis  which  have  not  defiled  their  garments ; 
and  they  shall  walk  with  Me  in  white :  for  they  are  worthy.'— Rev.  iii.  4. 

The  fond  fancy  that  the  primitive  Church  was  a 
better  Church  than  to-day's  is  utterly  blown  to  pieces 
by  the  facts  that  are  obvious  in  Scripture.  Here,  in 
the  Apostolic  time,  under  the  very  eye  of  the  fervent 
Apostle  of  Love,  and  so  recently  after  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  on  the  seaboard  of  Asia,  was  a 
church,  a  young  church,  with  all  the  faults  of  a  decrepit 
old  one,  and  in  which  Jesus  Christ  Himself  could  find 
nothing  to  commend,  and  about  which  He  could  only 
say  that  it  had  a  name  to  live  and  was  dead.  The 
church  at  Sardis  suffered  no  persecution.  It  was 
much  too  like  the  world  to  be  worth  the  trouble  of 
persecuting.  It  had  no  heresy ;  it  did  not  care  enough 
about  religion  to  breed  heresies.    It  was  simply  utterly 


-44.  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

apathetic  and  dead.  And  yet  there  was  a  salt  in  it,  or 
it  would  have  been  rotten  as  well  as  dead.  There  wore 
'  a  few  names,  even  in  Sardis,'  which,  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  filth,  had  kept  their  skirts  white.  They  had 
'not  defiled  their  garments,'  and  so  with  beautiful 
congruity  the  promise  is  given  to  them — 'they  shall 
walk  with  Me  in  white,  for  they  are  worthy.'  The 
promise,  I  said.  It  would  have  been  wiser  to  have  said 
the  promises,  for  there  are  a  great  many  wrapped  up  in 
germ  in  these  quiet,  simple  words.  Nearly  all  that  we 
know,  and  all  that  we  need  to  know,  about  that 
mysterious  future  is  contained  in  them.  So  my  pur- 
pose now  is,  with  perfectly  inartificial  simplicity,  just 
to  take  these  words  and  weigh  them  as  a  jeweller 
might  weigh  in  his  scales  stones  which  are  very  small 
but  very  precious. 

I.  We  have  here,  then,  the  promise  of  continuous 
and  progressive  activity — '  they  shall  walk.' 

In  Scripture  we  continually  find  that  metaphor  of 
the  '  walk '  as  equivalent  to  an  outward  life  of  action. 
To  make  that  idea  prominent  in  our  conceptions  of  the 
future  is  a  great  gain,  for  it  teaches  us  at  once  how 
imperfect  and  one-sided  are  the  thoughts  about  it  which 
come  with  such  fascination  to  most  of  us  wearied  men. 
It  is  a  wonderful,  unconscious  confession  of  the  troubled, 
toilsome,  restless  lives  which  most  of  us  live,  that  the 
sweetest  and  most  frequently  recurring  thought  about 
the  great  future  is,  '  There  remaineth  a  rest  for  the 
people  of  God ' ;  where  the  wearied  muscles  may  be 
relaxed,  and  the  tortured  hearts  may  be  quiet.  But 
whilst  we  must  not  say  one  word  to  break  or  even  to 
diminish  the  depth  and  sweetness  of  that  aspect  of  the 
Christian  hope,  neither  must  we  forget  that  it  is  only 
one  phase  of  the  complete  whole,  and  that  this  promise 


v.4j  WALKING  IN  WHITE  245 

of  the  text  has  to  be  taken  with  it.  '  They  shall  walk,' 
in  all  the  energies  of  a  constant  activity,  far  more 
intense  than  it  was  at  its  highest  here,  and  yet  never, 
by  one  hair's  breadth,  trenching  upon  the  serenity  and 
indisturbance  of  that  perpetual  repose.  We  have  to 
put  together  the  two  ideas,  which  to  all  our  experience 
are  antagonistic,  but  which  yet  are  not  really  so,  but 
only  complementary,  as  the  two  halves  of  a  sphere 
may  be,  in  order  to  get  the  complete  round.  We  have 
to  say,  with  this  very  book  of  the  Apocalypse,  which 
goes  so  deep  into  the  secrets  of  heaven,  *  His  servants 
serve  Him  and  see  His  face ' — uniting  together  in  one 
harmonious  whole  the  apparent  and,  as  far  as  earth's 
experience  goes,  the  real  opposites  of  continual  con- 
templation and  continual  activity  of  service.  It  is  so 
hard  for  us  in  this  life  to  find  out  practically  for  our- 
selves how  much  to  give  to  each  of  these,  that  it  is 
blessed  to  know  that  there  comes  a  time  for  all  of  us, 
if  we  will,  when  that  difficulty  will  solve  itself,  and 
Mary  and  Martha  shall  be  one  person,  continually  serv- 
ing and  yet  continually  sitting,  no  more  troubled  about 
many  things,  in  the  quiet  of  the  Master's  presence, 
*  They  shall  walk,'  harmonising  work  and  rest,  contem- 
plation and  service. 

And  then  there  is  the  other  thought,  too,  involved  in 
that  pregnant  word,  of  continuous  advancement,  grow- 
ing every  moment,  through  the  dateless  cycles,  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  true  centre  of  our  souls,  and  up  into 
the  loftiness  of  perfection.  We  do  not  know  what 
ministries  of  love  and  service  may  wait  for  Christ's 
servants  yonder,  but  of  this  we  can  be  quite  sure,  that 
all  the  faculties  for  service  which  we  see  crippled  and 
limited  by  the  hindrances  of  earth  will  find  in  the 
future  a  worthier  sphere.    Do  you  think  it  likely  that 


246  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

God  should  so  waste  His  wealth  as  to  take  men  and 
redeem  them  and  sanctify  them,  and  prepare  them  by 
careful  discipline  and  strengthen  their  powers  by  work, 
and  then,  just  when  they  are  out  of  their  apprentice- 
ship and  ready  for  larger  service,  should  condemn  them 
to  idleness?  Is  that  like  Him?  Must  it  not  rather  be 
that  there  is  a  wider  field  for  the  faculties  that  were 
trained  here ;  and  that,  whatsoever  there  may  be  in 
eternity,  there  will  be  no  idleness  there  ? 

II.  Still  further,  here  is  the  further  promise  of  com- 
panionship with  Christ.     ♦  They  shall  walk  with  Me' 

'  How  can  two  walk  together  except  they  be  agreed  ? ' 
If  there  be  this  promised  union,  it  can  only  be  because 
of  the  completeness  of  sympathy  and  the  likeness  of 
character  between  Christ  and  His  companions.  The 
unity  between  Christ  and  His  followers  in  the  heavens 
is  but  the  carrying  into  perfectness  of  the  imperfect 
union  that  makes  all  the  real  blessedness  of  life  here 
upon  earth. 

•  With  Me.'  Why !  that  union  with  Christ  is  all  we 
know  about  heaven.  All  the  rest  is  imagery,  that  is 
reality.  All  the  rest  is  material  symbol,  that  is  what  it 
all  means. 

In  the  sweet,  calm  words  of  Richard  Baxter's  simple, 
but  deep  song — 

'  My  knowledge  of  that  life  is  small, 
The  eye  of  faith  is  dim  ; 
But  'tis  enough  that  Christ  knows  all, 
And  I  shall  be  with  Him.' 

We  ask  ourselves  and  one  another,  and  God's  Word,  a 
great  many  questions  about  that  unseen  life ;  and 
sometimes  it  seems  to  us  as  if  it  would  have  been  so 
much  easier  for  us  to  bear  the  burdens  that  are  laid 
upon  us  if  some  of  these  questions  could  have  been 


V.4]  WALKING  IN  WHITE  247 

answered.  But  we  do  not  really  need  to  know  more 
than  that  we  shall  be  '  ever  with  the  Lord.'  Two,  who 
are  ever  with  Him,  cannot  be  far  from  one  another. 
So  we  may  thankfully  feel  that  the  union  of  all  is 
guaranteed  by  the  union  of  each  with  Him.  And  for 
the  rest  we  can  wait. 

Only  remember  that  to  walk  with  Him  implies  that 
those  who  were  but  little  children  here  have  grown  up 
to  maturity.  We  try  to  tread  in  His  footsteps  here, 
but  at  the  best  we  follow  Him  with  tottering  feet  and 
short  steps,  as  children  trying  to  keep  up  with  an  elder 
brother.  But  there  we  shall  keep  step  and  walk  in 
His  company,  side  by  side.  For  earth  the  law  is, 
'leaving  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow  His 
steps.'  For  heaven  the  law  is  '  they  shall  walk  with 
Me ' ;  or,  as  the  other  promise  of  this  book  has  it,  *  they 
shall  follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  He  goeth,'  No 
heights  are  so  high  to  which  He  rises  but  He  will 
miake  our  feet  like  hind's  feet  to  tread  upon  the  high 
places;  no  glories  so  great  but  we  shall  share  them. 
Nothing  in  His  divine  nature  shall  part  Him  from  us, 
but  we  shall  be  ever  with  Him.  Let  us  comfort  one 
another  with  these  words. 

III.  Further,  my  text  speaks  a  promise  of  the  perfec- 
tion of  purity.     '  They  shall  walk  with  Me  in  white.' 

The  white  garment,  of  course,  is  a  plain  metaphor 
for  unsullied  purity  of  moral  character.  And  it  is 
worth  notice  that  the  word  employed  by  the  Apocalyp- 
tic seer  here  for  white,  as  indeed  is  the  case  throughout 
the  manifold  references  to  that  heavenly  colour  which 
abound  in  this  book,  implies  no  dead  ghastly  white, 
but  a  flashing  glistering  whiteness,  as  of  sunshine 
upon  snow,  which,  I  suppose,  is  the  whitest  thing  that 
human  eyes  can  look  upon  undazzled.    So  of  the  same 


248  REVELATION  [ch.iu. 

radiant  tint  as  the  great  White  Throne  on  which  H« 
sits  shall  be  the  vestures  of  those  that  follow  Him. 
The  white  robe  is  the  conqueror's  robe,  the  white  robe 
is  the  priest's  robe,  the  white  robe  is  the  copy  of  His 
who  stood  in  that  solitary  spot  on  Mount  Hermon,  just 
below  its  snowy  summit,  with  garments  '  so  as  no 
fuller  on  earth  could  white  them ' ;  white  as  the  driven 
and  sunlit  snow  that  sparkled  above.  Perhaps  we 
are  to  think  of  a  glorified  body  as  being  the  white 
garment.  Perhaps  it  may  be  rather  that  the  image 
expresses  simply  the  conception  of  entire  moral  purity, 
but  in  either  case  it  means  the  loftiest  manifestation 
of  the  most  perfect  Christlike  beauty  as  granted  to  all 
His  followers. 

IV.  And  so,  lastly,  note  the  condition  of  all  these 
promises. 

•  Thou  hast  a  few  names,  even  in  Sardis,  which  have 
not  defiled  their  garments ;  and  they  shall  walk  with 
Me  in  white :  for  they  are  worthy.'  The  only  thing 
that  makes  it  possible  for  any  man  to  have  that  future 
life  of  active  communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  in  perfect 
beauty  of  inward  character  and  of  outward  form,  is 
that  here  he  shall  by  faith  keep  himself  'unspotted 
from  the  world.'  There  is  a  congruity  and  proportion 
between  the  earthly  life  and  the  future  life.  Heaven 
is  but  the  life  of  earth  prolonged  and  perfected  by  the 
dropping  away  of  all  the  evil,  the  strengthening  and 
lifting  to  completeness  of  all  the  good.  And  the  only 
thing  that  fits  a  man  for  the  white  robe  of  glory  is 
purity  of  character  down  here  on  earth. 

There  is  nothing  said  here  directly  about  the  means 
by  which  that  purity  can  be  attained  or  maintained. 
That  is  sufficiently  taught  us  in  other  places,  but  what 
in  this  saying  Christ  insists  upon  is  that,  however  it  is 


V.4]  WALKING  IN  WHITE  249 

got,  it  must  be  got,  and  that  there  is  no  life  of  blessed- 
ness, of  holiness  and  glory,  beyond  the  grave,  except 
for  those  for  whom  there  is  the  life  of  aspiration  after, 
and  in  some  real  measure  possession  of,  moral  purity 
and  righteousness  and  goodness  here  upon  earth. 

Do  not  be  surprised  at  that  word — •  They  are  worthy.' 
It  is  an  evangelical  word.  It  declares  the  perfect  con- 
gruity  between  the  life  on  earth  and  the  issue  and 
reward  of  the  life  in  heaven.  And  it  holds  up  to  us 
the  great  principle  that  purity  here  is  crowned  with 
glory  hereafter.  If  the  white  garments  could  be  put 
upon  a  black  soul  they  would  be  like  the  poisoned 
shirt  on  the  demigod  in  the  Greek  legend,  they  would 
bite  into  the  flesh,  and  burn  and  madden.  But  it  is 
impossible,  and  for  ever  and  ever  it  remains  true  that 
only  those  who  have  kept  their  garments  undefiled 
here  shall  *  walk  in  white.*  It  does  not  need  absolute 
cleanness  from  all  spot,  God  be  thanked!  But  it  does 
need,  first,  that  we  shall  have  '  washed  our  robes  and 
made  them  white*  in  the  'blood  of  the  Lamb.*  And 
then  that  we  shall  keep  them  white,  by  continual 
recourse  to  the  blood  that  cleanses  from  all  sin,  and  by 
continual  effort  after  purity  like  His  own  and  received 
from  Him.  They  who  come  back  as  prodigals  in  rags, 
and  have  their  filthy  tatters  exchanged  for  the  clean 
garment  of  Christ's  righteousness,  with  which  by  faith 
they  are  invested,  and  who  then  take  heed  to  follow 
Him,  with  loins  girt  and  robes  kept  undefiled,  and  ever 
washed  anew  in  His  cleansing  blood,  shall  be  of  the 
heavenly  companions  of  the  glorified  Christ,  joined  to 
Him  in  all  His  dominion,  and  clothed  in  flashing  white- 
ness like  the  body  of  His  glory. 


v.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-ROBE 

'He  that  overcometh,  the  same  shall  be  clothed  In  white  raiment;  and  I  •will 
not  blot  out  his  name  out  of  the  book  of  life,  but  I  will  confess  hi3  name  before 
My  Father,  and  before  His  angels.'— Rev.  iii.  5. 

The  brightest  examples  of  earnest  Christianity  are 
generally  found  amidst  widespread  indifference.  If 
a  man  does  not  yield  to  the  prevailing  tone,  it  is  likely 
to  quicken  him  into  strong  opposition.  So  it  was  in 
this  Church  of  Sardis.  It  was  dead.  That  was  the 
summing  up  of  its  condition.  It  had  a  name  to  live, 
and  the  name  only  made  the  real  deadness  more  com- 
plete. But  there  were  exceptions:  souls  ablaze  with 
Divine  love,  who  in  the  midst  of  corruption  had  kept 
their  robes  clean,  and  whom  Christ's  own  voice  declared 
to  be  worthy  to  walk  with  Him  in  white. 

That  great  eulogium,  which  immediately  precedes 
our  text,  is  referred  to  in  the  first  of  its  triple  promises ; 
as  is  even  more  distinctly  seen  if  we  read  our  text  as 
the  Revised  Version  does :  '  He  that  overcometh,  the 
same  shall  thus  be  clothed  in  white  raiment ' ;  the 
'  thus '  pointing  back  to  the  preceding  words,  and 
widening  the  promise  to  the  faithful  few  in  Sardis  so 
as  to  extend  to  all  victors  in  all  Churches  throughout 
all  time. 

Now  the  remaining  two  clauses  of  our  text  also  seem 
to  be  coloured  by  the  preceding  parts  of  this  letter. 
We  read  in  it,  '  Thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest ' ; 
and  again,  '  Thou  hast  a  few  names  even  in  Sardis 
which  have  not  defiled  their  garments.'  Our  text 
catches  up  the  word,  and  moulds  its  promises  accord- 
ingly. One  is  more  negative,  the  other  more  positive  ; 
both  link  on  to  a  whole  series  of  Scriptural  represen- 
tations. 

2fi0 


V.6]      V.—THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-ROBE     251 

Now  all  these  declarations  of  the  blessedness  of  the 
victors  are,  of  course,  intensely  symbolical,  and  we  can 
but  partially  translate  them.  I  simply  seek  now  to 
take  them  as  they  stand,  and  to  try  to  grasp  at  least 
some  part  of  the  dim  but  certain  hopes  which  they 
partly  reveal  and  partly  hide.  There  are,  then,  three 
things  here. 

I.  The  victor's  robes. 

•  He  that  overcometh,  the  same  shall  (thus)  be 
clothed  in  white  raiment.'  White,  of  course,  is  the 
festal  colour.  But  it  is  more  than  that:  it  is  the 
heavenly  colour.  In  this  book  we  read  of  white  thrones, 
white  horses,  hairs  'white  as  snow,'  white  stones. 
But  we  are  to  notice  that  the  word  here  employed  does 
not  merely  mean  a  dead  whiteness,  which  is  the  absence 
of  colour,  but  a  lustrous  and  glistering  white,  like  that 
of  snow  smitten  by  sunshine,  or  like  that  which  dazzled 
the  eyes  of  the  three  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
when  they  saw  the  robes  of  the  glorified  Christ 
'  whitened  as  no  fuller  on  earth  could  white  them.'  So 
that  we  are  to  associate  with  this  metaphor,  not  only 
the  thoughts  of  purity,  festal  joy,  victory,  but  likewise 
the  thought  of  lustrous  glory. 

Then  the  question  arises,  can  we  translate  that 
metaphor  of  the  robe  into  anything  that  will  come 
closer  to  the  fact?  Now  I  may  remind  you  that  this 
figure  runs  through  the  whole  of  Scripture.  We  find, 
for  instance,  in  one  of  the  old  prophets,  a  vision  in 
which  the  taking  away  of  Israel's  sin  is  represented  by 
the  high  priest,  the  embodiment  of  the  nation,  stand- 
ing in  filthy  garments,  which  were  stripped  o£P  him 
and  fair  ones  put  on  him.  We  find  our  Lord  giving 
forth  a  parable  of  a  man  who  came  to  the  feast  not 
having  on  a  wedding  garment.    We  find  the  Apostle 


252  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

Paul  speaking  frequently,  in  a  similar  metaphor,  of 
putting  off  an  ancient  nature  and  putting  on  a  new 
one.  We  find  in  this  book,  not  only  the  references  in 
my  text  and  the  context,  but  the  great  saying  concern- 
ing those  that  have  '  washed  their  robes  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,'  and  the  final 
benediction  pronounced  upon  those  who  washed  their 
robes,  that  they  may  *  have  a  right  to  enter  through 
the  gate  into  the  city.' 

Putting  all  these  things  together — and  the  catalogue 
might  be  extended — we  have  to  observe  that  the  signi- 
fication of  this  symbol  is  not  that  of  something  wholly 
external  to  or  apart  from  the  man,  but  that  it  is  rather 
that  part  of  his  nature,  so  to  speak,  which  is  visible  to 
beholders,  and  we  may  translate  it  very  simply — the 
robe  is  character.  So  the  promise  of  my  text,  brought 
down  so  far  as  we  can  bring  it  to  its  primary  element, 
is  of  a  purity  and  lustrous  glory  of  personal  character, 
which  shall  be  visible  to  any  eye  that  may  look  upon 
the  wearer.  What  more  there  may  be  found  in  it  when 
we  are  'clothed  upon  with  our  house  which  is  from 
heaven,'  if  so  be  that  '  being  clothed  we  shall  not  be 
found  naked,'  I  do  not  presume  to  say.  I  do  not  specu- 
late, I  simply  translate  the  plain  words  of  Scripture 
into  the  truth  which  they  represent. 

But  now  I  would  have  you  notice  that  this,  like  all 
the  promises  of  the  New  Testament  in  regard  to  a  future 
life,  lays  main  stress  on  what  a  man  is.  Not  where  we 
are,  not  what  we  have,  not  what  we  do  or  know,  make 
heaven,  but  what  we  are.  The  promises  are  clothed  for 
us,  as  they  must  needs  be,  in  sensuous  images,  which 
Bcnsuous  men  have  interpreted  in  far  too  low  a  sense ; 
or  sometimes  have  not  been  even  at  the  trouble  of 
interpreting.    But  in  reality  there  are  but  two  facts 


V.6]      v.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-ROBE     258 

that  we  know  about  that  future,  and  they  are  smelted 
together,  as  cause  and  effect,  in  the  great  saying  of  the 
most  spiritual  of  the  Apostles :  •  We  shall  be  like  Him ' 
— that  is  what  we  shall  be — '  for  we  shall  see  Him  as 
He  is.'  So,  then,  purity  of  character,  when  all  the 
stains  on  the  garments,  spotted  by  the  flesh,  shall  have 
melted  away;  purity  of  character,  when  temptations 
shall  have  no  more  food  in  us  and  so  conflict  shall  not 
be  needful ;  purity  like  Christ's  own,  and  derived  from 
the  vision  of  Him,  according  to  the  great  law  that 
beholding  is  transformation,  and  the  light  we  see  is 
the  light  which  we  reflect — this  is  the  heart  of  this 
great  promise. 

But  notice  that  the  main  thing  about  it  is  that  this 
lustrous  purity  of  a  perfected  character  is  declared  to 
be  the  direct  outcome  of  the  character,  that  was  made 
by  effort  and  struggle  carried  on  in  faith  here  upon 
earth.  In  this  clause  the  familiar  •  I  will  give '  does 
not  appear ;  and  the  thought  of  the  condition  upon  earth 
working  itself  out  into  the  glory  of  lustrous  purity  in 
the  heavens  is  made  even  more  emphatic  by  the  adoption 
of  the  reading  to  which  I  have  referred :  *  Shall  thus  be 
clothed,'  which  points  us  backwards  to  what  preceded, 
where  our  Lord's  own  voice  declares  that  the  men  who 
have  not  defiled  their  garments  upon  earth  are  they  who 
'shall  walk  with  Him  in  white.*  The  great  law  of 
continuity  and  of  increase,  so  that  the  dispositions 
cultivated  here  rise  to  sovereign  power  hereafter,  and 
that  what  was  tendency,  and  struggle,  and  imperfect 
realisation  upon  earth  becomes  fact  and  complete  pos- 
session in  the  heavens,  is  declared  in  the  words  before 
us. 

What  solemn  importance  that  thought  gives  to  the 
Bmallest  of  our  victories  or  defeats  here  on  earth !  They 


254  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

are  threads  in  the  web  out  of  which  our  garment  is 
to  be  cut.  After  all,  yonder  as  here,  we  are  dressed  in 
homespun,  and  we  make  our  clothing  and  shape  it  for 
our  wear.  That  truth  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
other  truth  on  which  it  reposes— that  the  Christian  man 
owes  to  Christ  the  reception  of  the  new  garment  of 
purity  and  holiness.  The  evangelical  doctrine,  '  not  by 
works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,'  and  its 
complement  in  the  words  of  my  text,  are  perfectly 
harmonious.  We  cannot  weave  the  web  except  Christ 
gives  us  yarn,  nor  can  we  work  out  our  own  salvation 
except  Christ  bestows  upon  us  the  salvation  which  we 
work  out.  The  two  things  go  together.  Let  us  re- 
member that,  whilst  in  one  aspect  the  souls  that  were 
all  clad  in  filthy  garments  are  arrayed  as  a  bridegroom 
decketh  his  bride  with  a  fair  vesture,  in  another  aspect 
we  ourselves,  by  our  own  efforts,  by  our  own  struggles, 
by  our  own  victories,  have  to  weave  and  fashion  and 
cut  and  sew  the  dress  which  we  shall  wear  for  ever. 

II.  Notice  here  the  victor's  place  in  the  Book  of 
Life. 

*  I  will  not  blot  out  his  name  out  of  the  Book  of 
Life.'  I  have  pointed  out  that  in  the  former  clause 
the  characteristic  *  I  will  give  '  is  omitted,  in  order  that 
emphatic  expression  might  be  secured  for  the  thought 
that  in  one  aspect  the  reward  of  the  future  is  automatic 
or  self- working.  But  that  thought  is  by  no  means  a 
complete  statement  of  the  truth  with  regard  to  this 
matter ;  and  so,  in  both  of  the  subsequent  clauses,  we 
have  our  Lord  representing  Himself  (for  it  is  never  to 
be  forgotten  that  these  promises  are  Christ's  own  words 
from  heaven)  as  clothed  with  His  judicial  functions, 
and  as  determining  the  fates  of  men.  *  I  will  not  blot 
out  his  name  out  of  the  Book  of  Life.'   'That  is  a  solemn 


V.6]      v.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-ROBE     255 

and  tremendous  claim,  that  Christ's  finger  can  write, 
and  Christ's  finger  can  erase,  a  name  from  that 
register. 

Now  I  have  said  that  all  these  clauses  link  them- 
selves on  to  a  whole  series  of  Scriptural  representatives. 
I  showed  that  briefly  in  regard  to  the  former ;  I  would 
do  so  in  regard  to  the  present  one. 

You  will  remember,  perhaps,  in  the  early  history  of 
Israel,  that  Moses,  with  lofty  self-devotion,  prayed  God 
to  blot  his  name  out  of  His  book,  if  only  by  that  sacrifice 
Israel's  sin  might  be  forgiven.  You  may  recall  too, 
possibly,  how  one  of  the  prophets  speaks  of  *  those  that 
are  written  amongst  the  living  in  Jerusalem,'  and  how 
Daniel,  in  his  eschatological  vision,  refers  to  those  whose 
names  were  or  were  not  written  in  the  book.  I  need 
not  remind  you  of  how  our  Lord  commanded  His 
disciples  to  rejoice  not  in  that  the  spirits  were  subject 
to  them,  but  rather  to  rejoice  because  their  names  were 
written  in  heaven.  Nor  need  I  do  more  than  simply 
refer  to  the  Apostle's  tender  and  pathetic  excuse  for 
not  remembering  the  names  of  some  of  his  fellow- 
workers,  that  it  mattered  very  little,  because  their 
names  were  written  in  the  Book  of  Life.  Throughout 
this  Apocalypse,  too,  we  find  subsequent  allusions  of 
the  same  nature,  just  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
we  read  of  the  '  Church  of  the  first-born  whose  names 
are  written  in  heaven.'  Now  all  these,  thus  put 
together,  suggest  two  ideas :  one  which  I  do  not  deal 
with  here — viz.,  that  of  a  burgess-roll — and  the  other 
that  of  a  register  of  those  who  truly  live.  And  that  is 
the  thought  that  is  suggested  here.  The  promise  of 
my  text  links  on  to  the  picture  in  the  letter  of  the 
condition  of  the  Church  at  Sardis,  which  was  dead, 
and  says  that  the  victor  will  truly  and  securely  and  for 


5^56  REVELATION  [cH.m 

ever  possess  life,  with  all  the  clustered  blessednes* 
which,  like  a  nebula  unresolved,  gather  themselves,  dim 
yet  radiant,  round  that  great  word. 

But  what  I  especially  note  here  is,  not  so  much  this 
reiteration  of  the  fundamental  and  all-embracing 
promise  which  has  met  us  in  preceding  letters,  the  pro- 
mise of  a  secure,  eternal  life,  as  that  plain  and  solemn 
implication  that  a  name  may  be  struck  out  of  that  book. 
Theological  exigencies  compelled  our  fathers  to  deny 
that,  but  surely  the  words  of  our  text  are  too  plain 
to  be  neglected  or  misunderstood.  It  is  possible  that 
a  name,  like  the  name  of  a  dishonest  attorney,  shall 
be  struck  off  the  rolls.  Do  not  let  any  desire  for 
theological  symmetry  blind  you,  brother,  to  that  fact. 
Take  it  into  account  in  your  daily  lives.  It  is  possible 
for  a  man  to  *  cast  away  his  confidence.'  It  is  possible 
for  him  to  make  shipwreck  of  the  faith.  Some  of  you 
will  remember  that  pathetic  story  of  Cromwell's  death- 
bed, when  he  asked  one  of  his  ghostly  counsellors 
whether  it  was  true  that  *  once  in  the  covenant,  always 
in  the  covenant  ? '  He  got  the  answer,  '  Yes ' ;  and 
then  he  said,  'I  know  I  once  was,'  and  so  died. 
Brethren,  it  is  the  victors  whose  names  are  kept  upon 
the  roll.  These  people  at  Sardis  had  a  name  to  live, 
and  they  thought  that  their  names  were  in  the  Book 
of  Life.  And  when  it  was  opened,  lo !  a  blot.  Some 
of  us  have  seen  upon  the  granite  of  Egyptian  temples 
the  cartouches  of  a  defeated  dynasty  chiselled  out  by 
their  successors.  The  granite  on  which  this  list  is 
written  is  not  so  hard  but  that  a  man,  by  his  own  sin, 
falling  away  from  the  Master,  may  chisel  out  his  name. 
A  student  goes  up  for  his  examination.  He  thinks  he 
has  succeeded.  The  pass-lists  come  out,  and  his  name 
is  not  there.    Take  care  that  you  are  not  building  upon 


V  5]      v.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-ROBE      257 

past  faith,  but  remember  that  it  is  the  victors  name 
that  is  not  blotted  out  of  the  Book  of  Life. 

III.  Lastly,  the  victor's  recognition  by  the  Command- 
ing Officer. 

'  I  will  confess  his  name  before  My  Father,  and  before 
His  angels.'  There,  too,  we  have  a  kind  of  mosaic, 
made  up  of  previous  Scripture  declarations.  Our  Lord, 
twice  in  the  Gospels — and  on  neither  occasion  in  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  John — has  similar  sayings; 
once  about  confessing  the  name  of  him  who  confesses 
His  name  '  before  the  Father ' ;  once  about  confessing 
it  'before  the  holy  angels.'  Here  these  are  smelted 
together  into  the  one  great  recognition  by  Jesus  Christ 
of  the  victor  as  being  His. 

Now  I  need  not  remind  you  of  how  emphatically, 
to  this  clause  also,  the  remark  which  I  have  made  with 
regard  to  the  former  one  applies,  and  how  tremendous 
and  inexplicable,  except  on  one  hypothesis,  is  this  same 
assumption  by  Christ  of  judicial  functions  which  deter- 
mine the  fate  and  the  standing  of  men. 

But  I  would  rather  point  to  the  thought  that  this 
promise  carries  with  it,  not  only  Christ's  judicial  recog- 
nition of  the  victor,  but  also  the  thought  of  loving 
relationship,  of  close  friendship,  of  continual  regard. 
He  *  confesses  the  name ' — that  means  that  He  takes  to 
His  heart,  and  loves  and  cares  for  the  person. 

Is  it  not  the  highest  honour  that  can  be  given  to 
any  soldier,  to  have  honourable  mention  in  the  general's 
despatches  ?  It  matters  very  little  what  becomes  of 
our  names  upon  earth,  though  there  they  be  dark, 
and  swift  oblivion  devours  them  almost  as  soon  as  we 
are  dead,  except  in  so  far  as  they  may  live  for  a  little 
while  in  the  memory  of  two  or  three  that  loved  us. 
That  is  the  fate  of  most  of  us.    And  surely  *  the  hollow 

B 


258  REVELATION  [ch.iii. 

wraith  of  dying  fame '  may  *  fade  wholly,'  and  we 
•  exult,'  if  Jesus  Christ  confess  our  name.  It  matters 
little  who  forgets  us  if  He  remembers  us.  It  matters 
even  less  what  the  judgments  pronounced  in  our  obitu- 
aries may  be,  if  He  says,  '  That  man  is  Mine,  and  I  own 
him.'  Ah!  brethren,  what  a  reversal  of  the  world's 
judgments  there  will  be  one  day ;  and  how  names  that 
have  been  blown  through  a  thousand  trumpets,  and 
had  hosannas  sung  to  them,  and  been  welcomed  with 
a  tumult  of  acclaim  through  generations,  will  sink  into 
oblivion  and  never  be  heard  of  any  more,  and  the  un- 
seen and  obscure  men  who  lived  by,  and  for,  and  with 
Jesus  Christ,  will  come  to  the  front  I  Praise  from  Him 
is  praise  indeed. 

Now,  brethren,  the  upshot  of  it  all  is  that  life  here 
derives  its  meaning  and  its  consecration  from  life  here- 
after. The  question  for  us  is,  do  we  habitually  realise 
that  we  are  weaving  the  garment  we  must  wear,  be  it 
a  poisoned  robe  that  shall  eat  into  our  flesh  like  fire, 
or  be  it  a  vesture  clean  and  white  ?  Do  we  brace  our- 
selves for  the  obscure  struggles  of  our  little  lives,  feel- 
ing that  they  are  not  small  because  they  carry  eternal 
consequences  ?  Are  we  content  to  be  unknown  because 
well  known  by  Him,  and  to  live  so  that  He  shall  ac- 
knowledge us  in  the  day  when  to  be  acknowledged  by 
Him  means  glory  and  blessedness  beyond  all  hopes  and 
all  symbols ;  and  to  be  disowned  by  Him  means  ruin 
and  despair  ?  You  know  the  conditions  of  victory.  Lay 
them  to  heart,  and  its  issues,  and  the  tragical  results 
of  death ;  and  then  cleave,  with  mind  and  heart  and 
will,  to  Him  who  can  make  you  more  than  conquerors, 
who  will  change  your  frayed  and  dinted  armour  for 
the  fine  linen,  clean  and  white,  and  will  point  to  you, 
before  His  Father  and  the  universe,  and  say,  'This 


y.6]  KEEPING  AND  KEPT  259 

man  was  one  of  Thy  faithful  soldiers.'  That  will  be 
honour  indeed.  Do  you  see  to  it  that  you  make  it 
yours. 


KEEPING  AND  KEPT 

'  Because  thon  hast  kept  the  word  of  My  patience,  I  also  will  keep  thee  from  the 
hour  of  temptation.'— Rev.  iii.  10. 

Thebe  are  only  two  of  the  seven  churches  which 
receive  no  censure  or  rebuke  from  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
of  these  two — viz.,  the  churches  of  Smyrna  and  Phila- 
delphia— the  former  receives  but  little  praise  though 
much  sympathy.  This  church  at  Philadelphia  stands 
alone  in  the  abundance  and  unalloyed  character  of  the 
eulogium  which  Christ  passes  upon  it.  He  doles  out 
His  praise  with  a  liberal  hand,  and  nothing  delights 
Him  more  than  when  He  can  commend  even  our 
imperfect  work.  He  does  not  wait  for  our  perform- 
ances to  reach  the  point  of  absolute  sinlessness  before 
He  approves  them.  Do  you  think  that  a  father  or  a 
mother,  when  its  child  was  trying  to  please  him  or 
her,  would  be  at  all  likely  to  say, '  Your  gift  is  worth 
very  little.  I  could  buy  a  far  better  one  in  a  shop'? 
And  do  you  think  that  Jesus  Christ's  love  and  delight 
in  the  service  of  His  children  are  less  generous  than 
ours  ?    Surely  not. 

So  here  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  these  good  souls 
in  Philadelphia  lived  angelic  lives  of  unbroken  holi- 
ness because  Jesus  Christ  has  nothing  but  praise  for 
them.  Rather  we  are  to  learn  the  great  thought  that, 
in  all  our  poor,  stained  service,  He  recognises  the 
central  motive  and  main  drift,  and,  accepting  these,  is 
glad  when  He  can  commend.     'Thou  hast  kept  the 


260  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

word  of  My  patience,'  and,  with  a  beautiful  reciprocity, 
'  I  will  keep  those  that  keep  My  word  from '  and  '  in 
the  hour  of  temptation.' 

I.  Now  notice,  in  the  first  place,  the  thing  kept. 

That  is  a  remarkable  phrase  '  the  word  of  My 
patience.'  A  verse  or  two  before,  our  Lord  had  said  to 
the  same  church,  evidently  speaking  about  the  same 
thing  in  them,  'Thou  hast  a  little  strength,  and  hast 
kept  My  word.'  This  expression,  'the  word  of  My 
patience,'  seems  to  be  best  understood  in  the  same 
general  way  as  that  other  which  precedes  it,  and  upon 
which  it  is  a  commentary  and  an  explanation.  It 
refers,  not  to  individual  commandments  to  patience, 
but  to  the  entire  gospel  message,  the  general  whole  of 
•the  Word  of  Jesus  Christ'  communicated  therein  to 
men.  That  is  a  profound  and  beautiful  way  of  char- 
acterising the  sum  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ 
as  '  the  word  of  His  patience,'  and  is  one  which  yields 
ample  reward  to  meditative  thought. 

The  whole  gospel,  then,  is  so  named,  inasmuch  as  it 
all  records  the  patience  which  Christ  exercised. 

What  does  the  New  Testament  mean  by  *  patience '  ? 
Not  merely  endurance,  although,  of  course,  that  is  in- 
cluded, but  endurance  of  such  a  sort  as  will  secure 
persistence  in  work,  in  spite  of  all  the  opposition  and 
sufferings  which  may  come  in  the  way.  The  world's 
patience  simply  means, '  Pour  on,  I  will  endure.'  The 
New  Testament  patience  has  in  it  the  idea  of  persever- 
ance as  well  as  of  endurance,  and  means,  not  only  that 
we  bow  to  the  pain  or  the  sorrow,  but  that  nothing 
in  sorrow,  nothing  in  trial,  nothing  in  temptation, 
nothing  in  antagonism,  has  the  smallest  power  to 
divert  us  from  doing  what  we  know  to  be  right. 
The  man    who    will    reach    his    hand    through    the 


T.IO]  KEEPING  AND  KEPT  261 

flmoke  of  hell  to  lay  hold  of  plain  duty  is  the  patient 
man  of  the  New  Testament.  'Though  there  were 
as  many  devils  in  Worms  as  there  are  tiles  on  the 
housetops,  I  will  go  in.'  That  speech  of  Luther's, 
though  uttered  with  a  little  too  much  energy,  ex- 
pressed the  true  idea  of  Christian  patience.  High 
above  the  stormy  and  somewhat  rough  determination 
of  the  servant  towers,  calm  and  gentle,  and  therefore 
stronger,  the  'patience'  of  the  Lord,  and  the  whole 
story  of  His  life  on  earth  may  well  be  regarded,  from 
this  point  of  view,  as  the  record  of  His  unfaltering 
and  meek  continuance  in  obedience  to  the  Father's 
will,  in  the  face  of  opposition  and  suffering.  His  life, 
to  use  a  secular  word,  was  the  most '  heroic '  ever  lived. 
Before  Him  was  the  thing  to  be  done,  and  between 
Him  and  it  were  massed  such  battalions  of  antagonism 
and  evil  as  never  were  mustered  in  opposition  to  any 
other  saintly  soul  upon  earth.  And  through  all  He 
went  persistently,  with  'His  face  like  a  flint,'  of  set 
purpose  to  do  the  work  for  which  He  came  into  the 
world. 

But  there  was  no  fierce  antagonism  about  Jesus 
Christ's  patience.  His  persistence,  in  spite  of  all 
obstacles  and  opposition,  was  the  persistence  of  meek- 
ness, the  heroism  of  gentleness.  Patience  in  the  lower 
sense  of  quiet  endurance,  as  well  as  in  the  higher,  of 
heroic  scorn  of  all  that  opposition  could  do  to  hinder 
the  realisation  of  the  Father's  will,  is  deeply  stamped 
upon  His  life.  We  think  of  His  gentleness,  of  His 
meekness,  of  His  humility,  of  all  the  softer,  and,  as 
men  insolently  call  them,  the  more  feminine  virtues  in 
Christ's  character.  But  I  do  not  know  that  we  often 
enough  think  of  what  men,  with  equal  insolence  and 
shortsightedness,  call  the  masculine  virtues  of  which, 


262  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

too,  He  is  the  great  Exemplar,  that  magniificent,  un- 
paralleled, and  perfectly  quiet  and  unostentatious  in- 
vincibility of  will  and  heroism  of  settled  resolve  with 
which  He  pressed  towards  the  mark,  though  the  mark 
was  a  cross. 

This  is  the  theme  of  the  gospel  story,  and  this 
Apocalypse  of  a  gentle  Christ,  whose  gentleness  was 
the  gentleness  of  inflexible  strength,  this  story,  or 
word  '  of  My  patience,'  is  that  which  we  are  to  lay  upon 
our  hearts.  For  that  name  is  fitly  applied  to  the 
gospel,  inasmuch  as  it  enjoins  upon  every  one  of  us  in 
our  degree,  and  in  regard  of  the  far  easier  tasks  and 
slighter  antagonisms  with  which  we  have  to  do  and 
\  which  we  have  to  meet,  to  make  Christ's  persistence  the 
model  for  our  lives.  So  the  whole  morality  of  Christian- 
ity may  almost  be  gathered  up  into  this  one  expression, 
which  sets  forth  at  once  the  law  and  the  supreme  motive 
for  fulfilling  it.  Unwelcome  and  hard  tasks  are  made 
easy  and  delightsome  when  we  hear  Jesus  say,  'The 
record  of  My  patience  is  thy  pattern  and  thy  power. 
Be  like  Me,  and  thou  shalt  be  perfect  and  entire,  want- 
ing nothing.' 

II.  Notice,  next,  the  keepers  of  this  word. 

The  metaphor  represents  to  us  the  action  of  one  who, 
possessing  some  valuable  thing,  puts  it  into  some  safe 
place,  takes  great  care  of  it,  carries  it  very  near  to  the 
heart,  perhaps  within  the  robe,  and  watches  tenderly 
and  jealously  over  it.  So  *  thou  hast  kept  the  word  of 
My  patience.' 

There  are  two  ways  by  which  Christians  are  to  do 
that;  the  one  is  by  inwardly  cherishing  the  word,  and 
the  other  by  outwardly  obeying  it.  There  should  be 
both  the  inward  counting  it  dear  and  precious,  and 
treasuring  it  in  mind  and  heart,  as  the  Psalmist  says, 


V.  10]  KEEPING  AND  KEPT  263 

'  Thy  word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart,  that  I  should  not 
offend  against  Thee,'  and  also  the  regulation  of  conduct 
which  we  more  usually  regard  as  keeping  the  com- 
mandment. 

Let  me  say  a  word,  and  it  shall  only  be  a  word,  about 
each  of  these  two  things.  I  am  afraid  that  the  plain 
practical  duty  of  reading  their  Bibles  is  getting  to  be 
a  much  neglected  duty  amongst  professing  Christian 
people.  I  do  not  know  how  you  are  to  keep  the  words  of 
Christ's  patience  in  your  hearts  and  minds  if  you  do  not 
read  them.  I  am  afraid  that  most  Christian  congrega- 
tions nowadays  do  their  systematic  and  prayerful 
study  of  the  New  Testament  by  proxy,  and  expect  their 
ministers  to  read  the  Bible  for  them  and  to  tell  them 
what  is  there.  A  mother  will  sometimes  take  a  morsel 
of  her  child's  food  into  her  mouth,  and  half  masticate 
it  first  before  she  passes  it  to  the  little  gums.  I  am 
afraid  that  newspapers,  and  circulating  libraries,  and 
magazines,  and  little  religious  books — very  good  in 
their  way,  but  secondary  and  subordinate — have  taken 
the  place  that  our  fathers  used  to  have  filled  by 
honest  reading  of  God's  Word.  And  that  is  one  of  the 
reasons,  and  I  believe  it  is  a  very  large  part  of  the 
reason,  why  so  many  professing  Christians  do  not 
come  up  to  this  standard;  and  instead  of  *  running 
with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  them,'  tcalk 
in  an  extraordinarily  leisurely  fashion,  by  fits  and 
starts,  and  sometimes  with  long  intervals,  in  which 
they  sit  still  on  the  road,  and  are  not  a  mile  farther 
at  a  year's  end  than  they  were  when  it  began. 
There  never  was,  and  there  never  will  be,  vigorous 
Christian  life  unless  there  be  an  honest  and  habitual 
study  of  God's  Word.  There  is  no  short-cut  by  which 
Christians  can  reach  the  end  of  the  race.     Foremost 


264  REVELATION  [ch.iii. 

among  the  methods  by  which  their  eyes  are  enligh- 
tened and  their  hearts  rejoiced  are  application  to  the 
eyes  of  their  understanding  of  that  eye-salve,  and  the 
hiding  in  their  hearts  of  that  sweet  solace  and  fountain 
of  gladness,  the  Word  of  Christ's  patience,  the  revela- 
tion of  God's  will.  The  trees  whose  roots  are  laved 
and  branches  freshened  by  that  river  have  leaves  that 
never  wither,  and  all  their  blossoms  set. 

But  the  word  is  kept  by  continual  obedience  in 
action  as  well  as  by  inward  treasuring.  Obviously  the 
inward  must  precede  the  outward.  Unless  we  can  say 
with  the  Psalmist,  *  Thy  word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart,' 
we  shall  not  be  able  to  say  with  him,  *  I  have  not  hid 
Thy  righteousness  within  my  heart.'  If  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  is  to  sound  like  a  rousing  trumpet-blast 
from  our  lives,  it  must  first  be  heard  in  secret  by  us, 
and  its  music  linger  in  our  listening  hearts. 

We  need  this  brave  persistence  in  daily  life  if  we  are 
not  to  fail  wholly.  Very  instructive  in  this  aspect 
are  many  of  the  Scripture  allusions  to  '  patience '  as 
essential  to  the  various  virtues  and  blessednesses  of 
Christian  life. 

For  example,  •  In  your  patience  ye  shall  win  your 
souls.'  Only  he  who  presses  right  on,  in  spite  of  all 
that  externals  can  do  to  hinder  him  from  realising  his 
conviction  of  duty,  is  the  lord  of  his  own  spirit.  All 
others  are  slaves  to  something  or  some  one.  By  per- 
sistence in  the  paths  of  Christian  service,  no  matter 
what  around  or  within  us  may  rise  up  to  hinder  us, 
and  by  such  persistence  only,  do  we  become  masters  of 
ourselves.  Many  a  man  has  to  walk,  as  in  the  old  days 
of  ordeal  by  fire,  over  a  road  strewn  with  hot  plough- 
shares, to  get  to  the  place  where  God  will  have  him  to 
be.    And  if  he  does  not  flinch,  though  he  may  reach 


v.lO]  KEEPING  AND  KEPT  265 

the  goal  with  scorched  feet,  he  will  reach  it  with  a 
quiet  heart,  and  possess  himself,  whatever  he  may  lose. 

Again,  the  Lord  Himself  says  to  us,  *  These  are  those 
which  bring  forth  fruit  with  patience.'  There  is  no 
growth  of  Christian  character,  no  flowering  of  Christian 
conduct,  no  setting  of  incipient  virtues  into  the  mature 
fruit  of  settled  habit,  without  this  persistent  adher- 
ence in  the  face  of  all  antagonism,  to  the  dictates  of 
conscience  and  the  commandment  of  Christ.  It  is  the 
condition  of  bringing  forth  fruit,  some  thirty,  some 
sixty,  and  some  a  hundredfold. 

Again  the  Scripture  says,  demanding  this  same  per- 
sistence, gentle  abstinence,  and  sanctified  stiffnecked- 
ness,  '  Run  with  perseverance  the  race  that  is  set 
before  you.'  There  is  no  progress  in  the  Christian 
course,  no  accomplishing  the  stadia  through  which  we 
have  to  pass,  except  there  be  this  dogged  keeping  at 
what  we  know  to  be  duty,  in  spite  of  all  the  reluctance 
of  trembling  limbs,  and  the  cowardice  of  our  poor 
hearts. 

III.  We  have  here  Christ  keeping  the  keepers  of 
His  word. 

*  Because  thou  hast  kept  the  word  of  My  patience  I 
will  keep  thee  from,'  and  in,  '  the  hour  of  temptation.' 
There  is  a  beautiful  reciprocity,  as  I  said.  Christ  will 
do  for  us  as  we  have  done  with  His  word.  Christ  still 
does  in  heaven  what  He  did  upon  earth.  In  the  great 
high  priest's  prayer  recorded  by  the  evangelist  who 
was  also  the  amanuensis  of  these  letters  from  heaven, 
Jesus  said, '  I  kept  them  in  Thy  name  which  Thou  hast 
given  Me,  and  I  guarded  them,  and  not  one  of  them 
perished.'  And  now,  speaking  from  heaven,  He  con- 
tinues His  earthly  guardianship,  and  bids  us  trust  that, 
just  as  when  with  His  followers  here,  He  sheltered 


266  REVELATION  [cH.ni. 

them  as  a  parent  bird  does  its  young,  fluttering  round 
them,  bearing  them  up  on  its  wings,  and  drew  them 
within  the  sacred  circle  of  His  sweet,  warm,  strong, 
impregnable  protection,  so,  if  we  keep  the  word  of  His 
patience,  cherishing  the  story  of  His  life  in  our  hearts, 
and  humbly  seeking  to  mould  our  lives  after  its  sweet 
and  strong  beauty,  He  will  keep  us  in  the  midst  of, 
and  also  from,  the  hour  of  temptation.  The  Christ  in 
heaven  is  as  near  each  trembling  heart  and  feeble 
foot,  to  defend  and  to  uphold,  as  was  the  Christ  upon 
earth. 

He  does  not  promise  to  keep  us  at  a  distance  from 
temptation,  so  as  that  we  shall  not  have  to  face  it,  but 
from  means,  as  any  that  can  look  at  the  original  will 
see,  that  He  will  save  \xs  out  of  it,  we  having  previously 
been  in  it,  so  as  that  *  the  hour  of  temptation '  shall  not 
be  the  hour  of  falling.  Yes !  the  man  whose  heart  is 
filled  with  the  story  of  Christ's  patience,  and  who  is 
seeking  to  keep  that  word,  will  walk  in  the  midst  of  the 
fire-damp  of  this  mine  that  we  live  in,  as  with  a  safety 
lamp  in  his  hand,  and  there  will  be  no  explosion.  If 
we  keep  our  hearts  in  the  love  of  God,  and  in  that  great 
word  of  Christ's  patience,  the  gunpowder  in  our  nature 
will  be  wetted,  and  when  a  spark  falls  upon  it  there 
will  be  no  flash.  Outward  circumstances  will  not  be 
emptied  of  their  power  to  tempt,  but  our  susceptibility 
will  be  deadened  in  proportion  as  we  keep  the  word  of 
the  patience  of  the  patient  Christ.  The  lustre  of  earthly 
brightnesses  will  have  no  glory  by  reason  of  the  glory 
that  excelleth,  and  when  set  by  the  side  of  heavenly 
gifts  will  show  black  against  their  radiance,  as  would 
electric  light  between  the  eye  and  the  sun. 

It  is  great  to  wrestle  with  temptation  and  fling  it, 
but  it  is  greater  to  be  so  strong  that  it  never  grasps  us. 


V.  10]  « THY  CROWN '  267 

It  is  great  to  be  victor  over  passions  and  lusts,  and  to 
put  our  heel  upon  them  and  suppress  them,  but  it  is 
better  to  be  so  near  the  Master  that  they  have  crouched 
before  Him,  and  '  the  lion  eats  straw  like  the  ox.' 

To  such  blessed  state  we  attain  if,  and  only  if,  we 
draw  near  to  Him  and  in  daily  communion  with  Him 
secure  that  the  secret  of  His  patient  continuance  in 
well-doing  is  repeated  in  us.  So  we  shall  be  lifted 
above  temptation.  That  great  word  of  His  patience, 
and  the  spirit  which  goes  with  the  word,  will  be  for  us 
like  the  cotton  wool  that  chemists  put  into  the  flask 
which  they  wish  to  seal  hermetically  from  the  approach 
of  microscopic  germs  of  corruption.  It  will  let  all  the  air 
through,  but  it  will  keep  all  the  infinitesimal  animated 
points  of  poison  out.  It  will  filter  the  most  polluted 
atmosphere,  and  bring  it  to  our  lungs  clean  and  clear. 
'If  thou  keep  the  word  of  My  patience  I  will  keep  thee 
from  the  hour  of  temptation.' 


«THY  CROWN' 

*.  .  .  Hold  that  fast  which  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take  thy  crown.'— Rbv.  ili.  11. 

The  Philadelphian  Church,  to  which  these  stirring 
words  are  addressed,  is  the  only  church  of  the  seven  in 
which  there  was  nothing  that  Christ  rebuked.  It  had  no 
faults,  or  at  least  no  recorded  faults,  either  of  morals  or 
of  doctrine.  It  had  had  no  great  storm  of  persecution 
beating  upon  it,  although  one  was  threatened.  But 
yet,  although  thus  free  from  blame  and  occasion  for 
censure,  it  was  not  beyond  the  need  of  stimulating 
exhortation,  not  beyond  the  need  of  wholesome  warn- 
ing, not  beyond  the  reach  of  danger  and  possible  loss. 
'That  no  man  take  thy  crown' — as  long  as  Christian 


268  REVELATION  [oh.  in. 

men  are  here,  so  long  have  they  to  watch  against  the 
tendency  of  received  truth  to  escape  their  hold  because 
of  its  very  familiarity;  of  things  that  are  taken  for 
granted  to  become  impotent  and  to  slip,  and  so  for  the 
crown  to  fall  from  the  head,  which  is  all  unconscious 
of  its  discrowned  shame. 

Wo  have  here,  then,  three  things :  *  thy  crown ' ;  the 
possibility  of  losing  it ;  the  way  to  secure  it. 

I.  Now,  as  to  the  first.  It  contributes  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  the  metaphor  to  remember 
that  the  crown  spoken  of  here  is  not  the  symbol  of 
royalty,  not  the  golden  or  other  circlet  which  kings  and 
emperors  wore,  but  the  floral  wreath  or  garland  which 
in  ancient  social  life  played  many  parts:  was  laid  on 
the  temples  of  the  victors  in  the  games,  was  wreathed 
around  the  locks  of  the  conquering  general,  was 
placed  upon  the  anointed  heads  of  brides  and  of 
f casters,  was  the  emblem  of  victory,  of  festivity,  of  joy. 
And  it  is  this  crown,  not  the  symbol  of  dominion,  but 
the  symbol  of  a  race  accomplished  and  a  conquest  won, 
an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  a  festal  day,  with  all  its 
abundance  and  ease  and  abandonment  to  delight,  which 
the  apocalyptic  vision  holds  out  before  the  Christian 
man. 

The  crown  is  a  common  figure  all  through  the  New 
Testament,  and  it  may  help  us  to  grasp  the  fulness  of 
the  meaning  of  the  metaphor  if  we  just  recall  in  a 
sentence  or  two  the  various  instances  of  its  occurrence. 
It  is  spoken  about  under  three  designations,  as  a  crown 
of  *  life,'  of  •  righteousness,'  of  '  glory ' ;  the  first  and  last 
designating  it  in  reference  to  that  of  which  it  may  be 
supposed  to  consist,  namely,  life  and  glory ;  the  centre 
one  designating  it  rather  in  reference  to  that  of  which 
it  is  the  reward.    The  righteousness  of  earth  is  crowned 


v.ll]  «THY  CROWN'  269 

by  the  more  abundant  life  and  the  more  radiant  glory 
of  the  future.  The  roses  that  were  wreathed  round 
the  flushed  temples  of  the  revellers  withered  and  faded, 
and  their  petals  drooped  in  the  hot  atmosphere  of  the 
banqueting  hall,  laden  with  fumes  of  wine.  The  parsley 
wreath,  that  was  twined  round  the  locks  of  the  young 
athlete  who  had  been  victorious  in  the  games,  was 
withered  to-morrow  and  cast  into  the  dust  heap.  '  But,' 
says  one  of  the  New  Testament  writers,  'the  crown 
of  glory  fadeth  not  away.'  And  the  other  wreaths,  in- 
trinsically worthless,  were  only  symbols  of  victory 
and  honour,  but  this  itself  is  full  of  preciousness  and  of 
substance  and  of  power. 

So  the  crown  is  the  reward  of  righteousness,  and 
consists  of  life  so  full  that  our  present  experience  con- 
trasted with  it  may  almost  be  called  an  experience 
of  death;  of  glory  so  flashing  and  wonderful  that, if 
our  natures  were  not  strengthened,  it  would  be  an 
•exceeding  weight  of  glory'  that  would  crush  them 
down,  and  upon  all  the  life  and  all  the  glory  is  stamped 
the  solemn  signature  of  eternity,  and  they  are  for  ever. 
Now,  says  my  text  to  each  Christian,  all  this,  the 
consequence  and  reward  of  gore  toil,  faithfully  done, 
and  of  effort  that  strains  every  muscle  in  the  race — the 
festal  participation  in  life  and  glory  for  evermore — is 
*  thy  crown  * ;  not  because  thou  hast  it  now,  but  because, 
as  sure  as  God  is  God  and  righteousness  is  righteous- 
ness, nothing  can  prevent  the  man  who,  holding  by 
Jesus  Christ,  has  become  possessor  of  the  righteous- 
ness, which  is  of  God  by  faith,  from  receiving  that  great 
reward.  It  is  his  already  in  the  Divine  destination; 
his  by  the  immutable  laws  of  proprietorship  in  God's 
kingdom;  his  upon  the  simple  condition  of  his  con- 
tinuing to  be  what  he  is.     Like  Peter's  saying  about 


270  REVELATION  [oh.iii. 

the  inheritance  'reserved  in  heaven  for  you,'  this 
representation  treats  the  perfect  future  blessedness  of 
us  v«rho  are  toiling  and  struggling  here  as  already  in 
existence  and  waiting  for  us,  beyond  the  dust  of  the 
wrestling-ground,  and  the  fury  of  the  battlefield.  Of 
course  that  is  not  meant  to  be  taken  in  prosaic  liter- 
ality.  The  •  place '  may  indeed  be  *  prepared '  in  which 
that  blessedness  is  to  be  realised,  but  the  blessedness 
itself  can  have  no  existence  apart  from  those  who 
possess  it.  The  purpose  of  the  representations  is  to 
put  in  the  strongest  possible  way  the  absolute  certainty 
of  the  heads  that  now  are  pressed  by  the  helmet  being 
then  encircled  with  the  crown,  and  of  the  strangers 
scattered  abroad  reaching  and  resting  for  ever  in  the 
promised  land  to  which  they  journey.  The  reward  is 
as  sure  as  if  each  man's  crown,  with  his  name  engraved 
upon  it,  lay  safely  guarded  in  the  treasure-house  of 
God. 

The  light  of  that  great  certainty  should  ever  draw 
our  weary  eyes,  weary  of  false  glitter  and  vulgar  gauds. 
The  assurance  of  that  joy  unspeakable  makes  the  best 
joy  here.  Future  blessedness,  apprehended  by  the  long 
arm  of  faith,  brings  present  blessedness.  The  gladness 
and  the  power  of  the  Christian  life  largely  depend  on 
the  habitual  beholding,  with  yearning  and  hope,  of 
'  the  King  in  His  beauty  and  of  the  land  that  is  very  far 
off,'  and  yet  so  near,  and  of  our  own  proper  •  portion  of 
the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.'  Christian  men, 
it  much  concerns  the  vigour  of  your  Christianity  that 
you  should  take  time  and  pains  to  cultivate  the  habit 
of  looking  forward  through  all  the  mists  and  darkness 
of  this  petty  and  unsubstantial  present,  and  of  thinking 
of  that  future  as  a  certainty  more  certain  than  the 
contingencies  of    earth  and  as  a  present  possession. 


v.ll]  «THY  CROWN*  271 

more  real  by  far  than  any  of  the  fleeting  shadows  which 
we  proudly  and  falsely  call  our  own.  They  pass  from 
hand  to  hand.  They  are  mine  to-day,  another's  to- 
morrow. I  have  no  real  possession  of  them  while 
they  were  called  mine.  We  truly  possess  but  two 
possessions — God  and  ourselves.  We  possess  both  by 
the  same  way  of  giving  ourselves  to  God  in  love  and 
obedience;  and  of  such  surrender  and  possession  the 
crown  is  the  perfecting  and  the  reward.  '  Thy  crown ' 
will  fit  no  temples  but  thine.  It  is  part  of  thy  perfected 
self,  and  certain  to  be  thine,  if  thou  hold  fast  the 
beginning  of  thy  confidence  firm  unto  the  end. 

II.  Note  next  the  grim  possibility  of  losing  the  crown. 

'That  no  man  take'  it.  Of  course  we  are  not  to 
misunderstand  the  contingency  shadowed  here,  as  if  it 
meant  that  some  other  person  could  filch  away  and  put 
on  his  own  head  the  crown  which  once  was  destined 
for  us,  which  is  a  sheer  impossibility  and  absurdity. 
No  man  would  think  to  win  heaven  by  stealing 
another's  right  of  entrance  there.  No  man  could,  if 
he  were  to  try.  The  results  of  character  cannot  be 
transferred.  Nor  are  we  to  suppose  reference  to  the 
machinations  of  tempters,  either  human  or  diabolic, 
who  deliberately  and  consciously  try  to  rob  Christians 
of  their  religion  here,  and  thereby  of  their  reward 
hereafter.  But  it  is  only  too  possible  that  men  and 
things  round  about  us  may  upset  this  certainty  that 
we  have  been  considering,  and  that  though  the  crown 
be  '  thine.'  it  may  never  come  to  be  thy  actual  posses- 
sion in  the  future,  nor  ever  be  worn  upon  thine  own 
happy  head  in  the  festival  of  the  skies. 

That  is  the  solemn  side  of  the  Christian  life,  that  it  is 
to  be  conceived  of  as  lived  amidst  a  multitude  of  men 
and  things  that  are  always  trying  to  make  us  unfit  to 


273  REVELATION  [ch.iii. 

receive  that  crown  of  righteousness.  They  cannot 
work  directly  upon  it.  It  has  no  existence  except  as 
the  efflorescence  of  our  own  character  crowned  by  God's 
approbation.  It  is  an  ideal  thing ;  but  they  can  work 
upon  us,  and  if  they  stain  our  heads  with  foul  dust,  then 
they  make  them  unfit  for  our  crown.  So  here  are  we, 
Christian  men  and  women !  in  a  world  all  full  of  things 
that  tend  and  may  be  regarded  as  desiring  to  rob  us  of 
our  crowns.  This  is  not  the  way  in  which  we  usually 
think  of  the  temptations  that  assail  us.  For  instance, 
there  comes  some  sly  and  whispering  one  to  us  and 
suggests  pleasant  hours,  bought  at  a  very  small  sacri- 
fice of  principle ;  delights  for  sense  or  for  ambition,  or 
for  one  or  other  of  the  passions  of  our  nature,  and 
all  looks  very  innocent,  and  the  harm  seems  to  be  com- 
paratively small.  Ah!  let  us  look  a  little  bit  deeper. 
That  temptation  that  seems  to  threaten  so  little  and 
to  promise  so  much  is  really  trying  to  rob  us  of  the 
crown.  If  we  would  walk  through  life  with  this 
thought  in  our  minds,  how  it  would  strip  off  the  masks 
of  all  these  temptations  that  buzz  about  us !  If  once 
we  saw  their  purpose  and  understood  the  true  aim  of 
the  flattering  lies  which  they  tell  us,  should  we  not  see 
over  the  lies,  and  would  not  they  lose  their  power  to 
deceive  us  ?  Be  sure — and  oh  !  let  us  hold  fast  by  the 
illuminating  conviction  when  the  temptations  come — 
be  sure  that,  with  all  their  glozing  words  and  false 
harlot  kisses,  their  meaning  is  this,  to  rob  us  of  the 
bright  and  precious  thing  that  is  most  truly  ours ;  and 
so  let  us  put  away  the  temptations,  and  say  to  them, 
*  Ah  I  you  come  as  a  friend,  but  I  know  your  meaning ; 
and  forewarned  is  forearmed.' 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  way  to  secure  the  crown  which 
is  ours. 


v.ii]  *THY  CROWN'  273 

•  Hold  fast  that  thou  hast.'  For  if  you  do  not  hold  it 
fast,  it  will  slip.  The  metaphor  is  a  plain  one — if  a  man 
has  got  something  very  precious,  he  grips  it  with  a 
very  tight  hand.  The  slack  hand  will  very  soon  be  an 
empty  hand.  Anybody  walking  through  the  midst  of 
a  crowd  of  thieves  with  a  bag  of  gold  in  charge  would 
not  hold  it  dangling  from  a  finger-tip,  but  he  would 
put  all  five  round  it,  and  wrap  the  strings  about  his 
wrist. 

The  first  shape  which  we  may  give  to  this  exhortation 
is — hold  fast  by  what  God  has  given  in  His  gospel ;  hold 
fast  His  Son,  His  truth.  His  grace.  Use  honestly  and 
diligently  your  intellect  to  fathom  and  to  keep  firm 
hold  of  the  great  truths  and  principles  of  the  gospel. 
Use  your  best  efforts  to  keep  your  wandering  hearts 
and  mobile  wills  fixed  and  true  to  the  revealed  love  of 
the  great  Lover  of  souls,  which  has  been  given  to  you 
in  Christ,  and  to  obey  Him.  You  have  got  a  Christ 
that  is  worth  keeping,  see  to  it  that  you  keep  Him,  and 
do  not  let  Him  slip  away  out  of  your  fingers.  When 
the  storms  come  a  wise  captain  lashes  all  the  light 
articles,  and  then  they  are  safe.  You  and  I  have  to 
struggle  through  many  a  storm,  and  all  the  loose  stuff  on 
deck  will  be  washed  off  or  bloAvn  away  long  before  we 
get  into  calm  water.  Lash  it  by  meditation,  by  faithful 
obedience,  and  by  constant  communion,  and  hold  fast 
the  Christian  gospel,  and,  in  the  Christ  whom  the 
gospel  reveals,  the  spiritual  life  that  you  possess. 

But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the  same  command- 
ment which  applies  not  so  much  to  that  which  is  given 
us  in  the  objective  revelation  and  manifestation  of  God 
in  Christ,  as  to  our  own  subjective  degrees  of  progress 
in  the  appropriation  of  Christ,  and  in  likeness  to  Him. 
And  possibly  that  is  what  my  text  more  especially 

0 


274  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

means,  for  just  a  little  before,  the  Lord  has  said  to  that 
Church, '  Thou  hast  a  little  strength,  and  hast  kept  My 
word,  and  hast  not  denied  My  name.'  'Thou  hast  a 
little  strength  .  .  .  hold  fast  that  which  thou  hast.'  See 
to  it  that  thy  present  attainment  in  the  Christian  life, 
though  it  may  be  but  rudimentary  and  incomplete,  is 
at  least  kept.  Cast  not  away  your  confidence,  hold 
fast  the  beginning  of  your  confidence  firm,  with  a 
tightened  hand,  unto  the  end.  For  if  we  keep  what  we 
have,  it  will  grow.  Progress  is  certain,  if  there  be 
persistence.  If  we  do  not  let  it  go,  it  will  increase  and 
multiply  in  our  possession.  In  all  branches  of  study 
and  intellectual  pursuit,  and  in  all  branches  of  daily 
life,  to  hold  fast  what  we  have,  and  truly  to  possess 
what  we  possess,  is  the  certain  means  to  make  our 
wealth  greater.  And  so  it  is  in  the  Christian  life.  Be 
true  to  the  present  knowledge,  and  use  it,  as  it  is  meant 
to  be  used,  and  it  will  daily  increase.  *  Hold  fast  that 
thou  hast.'  Thou  hast  the  '  strength ' ;  thou  hast  not  yet 
the  crown.  Keep  what  God  has  committed  to  you,  and 
God  will  keep  what  He  has  reserved  for  you. 

And  so  the  sure  way  to  get  the  crown  is  to  keep  the 
faith ;  and  then  the  life  and  the  glory,  which  are  but 
the  outcome  and  the  fruit  of  the  faithful,  persistent 
life  here,  are  as  sure  as  the  cycles  of  the  heavens,  or  as 
the  throne  and  the  will  of  God.  Men  and  things  and 
devils  may  try  to  take  your  crown  from  you,  but 
nobody  can  deprive  you  of  it  but  yourself.  Hold  fast 
the  present  possession,  and  make  it  really  your  own, 
and  the  future  crown  which  God  has  promised  to  all 
who  love  and  thereby  possess  Him  will,  in  due  time,  be 
twined  around  your  head.  He  who  has  and  holds  fast 
Christ  here  cannot  fail  of  the  crown  yonder. 


VI.— THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-NAMES 

*  Him  that  overcometh  will  I  make  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  My  God,  and  he 
Bhall  go  no  more  out :  and  I  will  write  upon  him  the  name  of  My  God,  and  the 
name  of  the  city  of  My  God,  which  is  new  Jerusalem,  which  cometh  down  out  of 
heaven  from  My  God  :  and  I  will  write  upon  him  My  new  name.'— Rev.  iii.  12. 

The  eyes  which  were  as  a  flame  of  fire  saw  nothing  to 
blame  in  the  Philadelphian  Church,  and  the  lips  out 
of  which  came  the  two-edged  sword  that  cuts  through 
all  hypocrisy  to  the  discerning  of  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart,  spoke  only  eulogium— '  Thou  hast 
kept  My  word,  and  hast  not  denied  My  name.'  But 
however  mature  and  advanced  may  be  Christian  ex- 
perience, it  is  never  lifted  above  the  possibility  of  temp- 
tation ;  so,  with  praise,  there  came  warning  of  an 
approaching  hour  which  would  try  the  mettle  of  this 
unblamcd  Church.  Christ's  reward  for  faithfulness  is 
not  immunity  from,  but  strength  in,  trial  and  conflict. 
As  long  as  we  are  in  the  world  there  will  be  forces 
warring  against  us;  and  we  shall  have  to  fight  our 
worst  selves  and  the  tendencies  which  tempt  us  to 
prefer  the  visible  to  the  unseen,  and  the  present  to  the 
future.  So  the  Church  which  had  no  rebuke  received 
the  solemn  injunction :  '  Hold  fast  that  thou  hast ; 
let  no  man  take  thy  crown.'  There  is  always  need  of 
struggle,  even  for  the  most  mature,  if  we  would  keep 
what  we  have.  The  treasure  will  be  filched  from  slack 
hands ;  the  crown  will  be  stricken  from  a  slumbering 
head.  So  it  is  not  inappropriate  that  the  promise  to 
this  Church  should  be  couched  in  the  usual  terms,  '  to 
him  that  overcometh,'  and  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn 
is  the  solemn  and  simple  one  that  the  Christian  life  is 
always  a  conflict,  even  to  the  end. 

The  promise  contained  in  my  text  presents  practic- 
ally but  a  twofold  aspect  of  that  future  blessedness ; 

276 


276  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

the  one  expressed  in  the  clause,  •!  will  make  him  a 
pillar' ;  the  other  expressed  in  the  clauses  referring  to  the 
writing  upon  him  of  certain  names.  I  need  not  do 
more  than  again  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  here,  as 
always,  Jesus  Christ  represents  Himself  as  not  only 
allocating  the  position  and  determining  the  condition, 
but  as  shaping,  and  moulding,  and  enriching  the  char- 
acters of  the  redeemed,  and  ask  you  to  ponder  the 
question.  What  in  Him  does  that  assumption  involve  ? 

Passing  on,  then,  to  the  consideration  of  these  two 
promises  more  closely,  let  us  deal  with  them  singly. 
There  is,  first,  the  steadfast  pillar;  there  is,  second, 
the  threefold  inscription. 

I.  The  steadfast  pillar. 

Now  I  take  it  that  the  two  clauses  which  refer  to 
this  matter  are  closely  connected.  '  I  will  make  him  a 
pillar  in  the  temple  of  My  God,  and  he  shall  go  no  more 
out.'  In  the  second  clause  the  figure  is  dropped,  and 
the  point  of  the  metaphor  is  brought  out  more  clearly. 
The  stately  column  in  the  temples,  with  which  these 
Philadelphian  Christians,  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  the 
glories  of  Greek  architecture,  were  familiar,  might  be, 
and  often  has  been,  employed  as  a  symbol  of  many 
things.  Here  it  cannot  mean  the  office  of  sustaining  a 
building,  or  pre-eminence  above  others,  as  it  naturally 
lends  itself  sometimes  to  mean.  For  instance,  the 
Apostle  Paul  speaks  of  the  three  chief  apostles  in 
Jerusalem,  and  says  that  they  '  seemed  to  be  pillars ' ; 
by  which  pre-eminence  and  the  office  of  maintaining 
the  Church  are  implied.  But  that  obviously  cannot  be 
the  special  application  of  the  figure  here,  inasmuch  as 
we  cannot  conceive  of  even  redeemed  men  sustain- 
ing that  temple  in  the  heavens,  and  also  inasmuch  as 
the  promise  here  is  perfectly  universal,  and  is  given  to 


T.12]  VI.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-NAMES  277 

all  that  overcome — that  is  to  say,  to  all  the  redeemed. 
We  must,  therefore,  look  in  some  other  direction. 
Now,  the  second  of  the  two  clauses  which  are  thus 
linked  together  seems  to  me  to  point  in  the  direction 
in  which  we  are  to  look.  '  He  shall  go  no  more  out.' 
A  pillar  is  a  natural  emblem  of  stability  and  permanence, 
as  poets  in  many  tongues  and  in  many  lands  have  felt  it 
to  be.  I  remember  one  of  our  own  quaint  English  writers 
who  speaks  of  men  who  '  are  bottomed  on  the  basis  of 
a  firm  faith,  mounting  up  with  the  clear  shaft  of  a 
shining  life,  and  having  their  persevering  tops  gar- 
landed about,  according  to  God's  promise,  "  I  will  give 
thee  a  crown  of  life." '  That  idea  of  stability,  of  per- 
manence, of  fixedness,  is  the  one  that  is  prominent  in 
the  metaphor  here. 

But  whilst  the  general  notion  is  that  of  stability  and 
permanence,  do  not  let  us  forget  that  it  is  permanence 
and  stability  in  a  certain  direction,  for  the  pillar  is  '  in 
the  temple  of  My  God.*  Now  I  would  recall  to  you 
the  fact  that  in  other  parts  of  Scripture  we  find  the 
present  relation  of  Christian  men  to  God  set  forth  under 
a  similar  metaphor :  '  Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living 
God  * ;  or  again,  '  In  whom  ye  are  builded  for  a  habita- 
tion of  God  through  the  Spirit ' ;  or  again,  in  that  great 
word  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  such  symbols, '  We 
will  come  and  make  our  abode  with  Him.'  So  that 
the  individual  believer  and  the  community  of  all  such 
are,  even  here  and  now,  the  dwelling-place  of  God. 
And  whilst  there  are  ideas  of  dignity  and  grace  attach- 
ing to  the  metaphor  of  the  pillar,  the  underlying  mean- 
ing of  it  is  substantially  that  the  individual  souls  of 
redeemed  men  shall  be  themselves  parts  of,  and  collec- 
tively shall  constitute,  the  temple  of  God  in  the  heavens. 

This  book  of  the  Apocalypse  has  several  points  of  view 


278  REVELATION  [oh.iii. 

in  regard  to  that  great  symbol.  It  speaks,  for  instance, 
of  there  being  •  no  temple  therein,'  by  which  is  meant 
the  cessation  of  all  material  and  external  worships 
such  as  belong  to  earth.  It  speaks  also  of  God  and  the 
Lamb  as  themselves  being  '  the  Temple  thereof.'  And 
here  we  have  the  converse  idea  that  not  only  may  we 
think  of  the  redeemed  community  as  dwelling  in  God 
and  Christ,  but  of  God  and  Christ  as  dwelling  in  the  re- 
deemed community.  The  promise,  then,  is  of  a  thril- 
ling consciousness  that  God  is  in  us,  a  deeper  realisation 
of  His  presence,  a  fuller  communication  of  His  grace, 
a  closer  touch  of  Him,  far  beyond  anything  that  we  can 
conceive  of  on  earth,  and  yet  being  the  continuation 
and  the  completion  of  the  earthly  experiences  of  those 
in  whom  God  dwells  by  their  faith,  their  love,  and  their 
obedience.  We  have  nothing  to  say  about  the  new 
capacities  for  consciousness  of  God  which  may  come  to 
redeemed  souls  when  the  veils  of  flesh  and  sense,  and 
the  absorption  in  the  present  drop  away.  "We  have 
nothing  to  say,  because  we  know  nothing  about  the 
new  manifestations  and  more  intimate  touches  which 
may  correspond  to  these  new  capacities.  There  are 
vibrations  of  sounds  too  rapid  or  too  slow  for  our  ears 
as  at  present  organised  to  catch.  But  whether  these 
be  too  shrill  or  too  deep  to  be  heard,  if  the  ear  were 
more  sensitive  there  would  be  sound  where  there  is 
silence,  and  music  in  the  waste  places.  So  with  new 
organs,  with  new  capacities,  there  will  be  a  new  and 
a  deeper  sense  of  the  presence  of  God ;  and  utterances 
of  His  lips  too  profound  to  be  caught  by  us  now,  or  too 
clear  and  high  to  be  apprehended  by  our  limited  sense, 
will  then  thunder  into  melody  and  with  clear  notes 
sound  His  praises.  There  are  rays  of  light  in  the 
spectrum,  at  both  ends  of  it,  as  yet  not  perceptible  to 


V.  12]  VI.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-NAMES  279 

human  eyes;  but  then  'we  shall,  in  Thy  light,  see 
light '  flaming  higher  and  deeper  than  we  can  do  now. 
We  dwell  in  God  here  if  we  dwell  in  Christ,  and  we 
dwell  in  Christ  if  He  dwell  in  us,  by  faith  and  love. 
But  in  the  heavens  the  indwelling  shall  be  more  perfect, 
and  transcend  all  that  we  know  now. 

The  special  point  in  regard  to  which  that  perfection 
is  expressed  here  is  to  be  kept  prominent.  'He 
shall  go  no  more  out.'  Permanence,  and  stability, 
and  uninterruptedness  in  the  communion  and  conscious- 
ness of  an  indwelling  God,  is  a  main  element  in  the 
glory  and  blessedness  of  that  future  life.  Stability  in 
any  fashion  comes  as  a  blessed  hope  to  us,  who  know 
the  curse  of  constant  change,  and  are  tossing  on  the 
unquiet  waters  of  life.  It  is  blessed  to  think  of  a  region 
where  the  seal  of  permanence  will  be  set  on  all  delights, 
and  our  blessedness  will  be  like  the  bush  in  the  desert, 
burning  and  yet  not  consumed.  But  the  highest  form 
of  that  blessedness  is  the  thought  of  stable,  unin- 
terrupted, permanent  communion  with  God  and  con- 
sciousness of  His  dwelling  in  us.  The  contrast  forces 
itself  upon  us  between  that  equable  and  unvarying 
communion  and  the  ups  and  downs  of  the  most  uniform 
Christian  life  here — to-day  thrilling  in  every  nerve  with 
the  sense  of  God,  to-morrow  dead  and  careless.  Some- 
times the  bay  is  filled  with  flashing  waters  that  leap 
in  the  sunshine  ;  sometimes,  when  the  tide  is  out,  there 
is  only  a  long  stretch  of  grey  and  oozy  mud.  It  shall 
not  be  always  so.  Like  lands  on  the  equator,  where 
the  difference  between  midsummer  and  midwinter  is 
scarcely  perceptible,  either  in  length  of  day  or  in  degree 
of  temperature,  that  future  will  be  a  calm  continuance, 
a  uniformity  which  is  not  monotony,  and  a  stability 
which  does  not  exclude  progress. 


280  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

I  cannot  but  bring  into  contrast  with  that  great 
promise  •  he  shall  go  no  more  out '  an  incident  in  the 
gospels.  Christ  and  the  Twelve  were  in  the  upper 
room,  and  He  poured  out  His  heart  to  them,  and  their 
hearts  burned  within  them.  But  •  they  went  out  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives ' — He  to  Gethsemane  and  to  Calvary  ; 
Judas  to  betray  and  Peter  to  deny ;  all  to  toil  and 
suffer,  and  sometimes  to  waver  in  their  faith.  '  He 
shall  go  no  more  out.'  Eternal  glory  and  unbroken 
communion  is  the  blessed  promise  to  the  victor  who 
is  made  by  Christ '  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  My  God.' 

II.  Now,  secondly,  notice  the  threefold  inscription. 

We  have  done  with  the  metaphor  of  the  pillar 
altogether.  We  are  not  to  think  of  anything  so  incon- 
gruous as  a  pillar  stamped  with  writing,  a  monstrosity 
in  Grecian  architecture.  But  it  is  the  man  himself 
on  whom  Christ  is  to  write  the  threefold  name.  The 
writing  of  a  name  implies  ownership  and  visibility. 

So  the  first  of  the  triple  inscriptions  declares  that  the 
victor  shall  be  conspicuously  God's.  '  I  will  write  upon 
him  the  name  of  My  God.'  There  may  possibly  be  an 
allusion  to  the  golden  plate  which  flamed  in  the  front  of 
the  high  priest's  mitre,  and  on  which  was  written  the 
unspoken  name  of  Jehovah.  But  whether  that  be 
so  or  no,  the  underlying  ideas  are  these  two  which  I 
have  already  referred  to — complete  ownership,  and  that 
manifested  in  the  very  front  of  the  character. 

How  do  we  possess  one  another  ?  How  do  we  belong 
to  God?  How  does  God  belong  to  us?  There  is  but 
one  way  by  which  a  spirit  can  possess  a  spirit — by  love, 
which  leads  to  self-surrender  and  to  practical  obedience. 
And  if — as  a  man  writes  his  name  in  his  books,  as  a 
farmer  brands  on  his  sheep  and  oxen  the  marks  that 
express  his  ownership — on  the  redeemed  there  is  written 


V.12]  VI.-THE  VICTOR'S  LIFE-NAMES  281 

the  name  of  God,  that  means,  whatever  else  it  may 
mean,  perfect  love,  perfect  self -surrender,  perfect 
obedience,  that  the  whole  nature  shall  be  owned,  and 
know  itself  owned,  and  be  glad  to  be  owned,  by  God. 
That  is  the  perfecting  of  the  Christian  relationship 
which  is  begun  here  on  earth.  And  if  we  here  yield 
ourselves  to  God  and  depart  from  that  foolish  and 
always  frustrated  attempt  to  be  our  own  masters  and 
owners,  so  escaping  the  misery  and  burden  of  self -hood, 
and  entering  into  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God,  we 
shall  reach  that  blessed  state  in  which  there  will  be  no 
murmuring  and  incipient  rebellions,  no  disturbance  of 
our  inward  submission,  no  breach  in  our  active  obedi- 
ence, no  holding  back  of  anything  that  we  have  or  are ; 
but  we  shall  be  wholly  God's — that  is,  wholly  possessors 
of  ourselves,  and  blessed  thereby.  *  He  that  loveth  his 
life  shall  lose  it ;  and  he  that  loseth  his  life,  the  same 
shall  find  it.'  And  that  Name  will  be  stamped  on  us, 
that  every  eye  that  looks,  whoever  they  may  be,  shall 
know  '  whose  we  are  and  whom  we  serve.' 

The  second  inscription  declares  that  the  victor  con- 
spicuously belongs  to  the  City.  Our  time  will  not 
allow  of  my  entering  at  all  upon  the  many  questions 
that  gather  round  that  representation  of  'the  New 
Jerusalem  which  cometh  down  out  of  heaven.'  I  must 
content  myself  with  simply  pointing  to  the  possible 
allusion  here  to  the  promise  in  the  preceding  letter  to 
Sardis.  There  we  were  told  that  the  victor's  name 
should  not  *  be  blotted  out  of  the  Book  of  Life ' ;  and 
that  Book  of  Life  suggested  the  idea  of  the  burgess-roll 
of  the  city,  as  well  as  the  register  of  those  that  truly 
live.  Here  the  same  thought  is  suggested  by  a  converse 
metaphor.  The  name  of  the  victor  is  written  on  the 
rolls  of  the  city,  and  the  name  of  the  city  is  stamped 


282  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

on  the  forehead  of  the  victor.  That  is  to  say,  the  affinity 
which,  even  here  and  now,  has  knit  men  who  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ  to  an  invisible  order,  where  is  their  true 
mother-city  and  metropolis,  will  then  be  uncontradicted 
by  any  inconsistencies,  unobscured  by  the  necessary 
absorption  in  daily  duties  and  transient  aims  and 
interests,  which  often  veils  to  others,  and  renders  less 
conscious  to  ourselves,  our  true  belonging  to  the  city 
beyond  the  sea.  The  name  of  the  city  shall  be  stamped 
upon  the  victor.  That,  again,  is  the  perfecting  and  the 
continuation  of  the  central  heart  of  the  Christian  life 
here,  the  consciousness  that  we  are  come  to  the  city  of 
the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  belong  to 
another  order  of  things  than  the  visible  and  material 
around  us. 

The  last  of  the  triple  inscriptions  declares  that  the 
victor  shall  be  conspicuously  Christ's.  'I  will  write 
upon  him  My  new  name.'  All  the  three  inscriptions 
link  themselves,  not  with  earlier,  but  with  later  parts 
of  this  most  artistically  constructed  book  of  the  Revela- 
tion ;  and  in  a  subsequent  portion  of  it  we  read  of  a 
new  name  of  Christ's,  which  no  man  knoweth  save 
Himself.  "What  is  that  new  name  ?  It  is  an  expression 
for  the  sum  of  the  new  revelations  of  what  He  is,  which 
will  flood  the  souls  of  the  redeemed  when  they  pass 
from  earth.  That  new  name  will  not  obliterate  the 
old  one — God  forbid !  It  will  not  do  away  with  the 
ancient,  earth-begun  relation  of  dependence  and 
faith  and  obedience.  '  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  .  .  . 
for  ever':  and  His  name  in  the  heavens,  as  upon  earth, 
is  Jesus  the  Saviour.  But  there  are  abysses  in  Him 
which  no  man  moving  amidst  the  incipiencies  and  im- 
perfections of  this  infantile  life  of  earth  can  under- 
stand.   Not  until  we  possess  can  we  know  the  depths 


X 


V.  12]  LAODICEA  288 

of  wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  of  all  other  blessed 
treasures  which  are  stored  in  Him.  Here  we  touch 
but  the  fringe  of  His  great  glory;  yonder  we  shall 
penetrate  to  its  central  flame. 

That  new  name  no  man  fully  knows,  even  when  he 
has  entered  on  its  possession  and  carries  it  on  his 
forehead;  for  the  infinite  Christ,  who  is  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  infinite  God,  can  never  be  comprehended, 
much  less  exhausted,  even  by  the  united  perceptions 
of  a  redeemed  universe ;  but  for  ever  and  ever,  more 
and  more  will  well  out  from  Him.  His  name  shall 
last  as  long  as  the  sun,  and  blaze  when  the  sun  him- 
self is  dead. 

•  I  will  write  upon  him  My  new  name '  was  said  to  a 
church,  and  while  the  eulogium  was,  *  Thou  hast  not 
denied  My  name.'  If  we  are  to  pierce  the  heart  and 
the  glory  there,  we  must  begin  on  its  edges  here.  If 
the  name  is  to  be  on  our  foreheads  then,  we  must  bear 
in  our  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus — the  brand  of 
ownership  impressed  on  the  slave's  palm.  In  the 
strength  of  the  name  we  can  overcome;  and  if  we 
overcome.  His  name  will  hereafter  blaze  on  our  fore- 
heads— the  token  that  we  are  completely  His  for  ever, 
and  the  pledge  that  we  shall  be  growingly  made  like 
unto  Him. 

LAODICEA 

'I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot ...  be  zealons  there- 
fore, and  repent.'— Rev.  iii.  15, 19. 

Wb  learn  from  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  that 
there  was  a  very  close  connection  between  that  Church 
and  this  at  Laodicea.  It  is  a  probable  conjecture  that 
a  certain  Archippus,  who  is  spoken  of  in  the  former 
Epistle,  was  the  bishop  or  pastor  of  the  Laodicean 


284  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

Church.  And  if,  as  seems  not  unlikely,  the  *  angels ' 
of  these  Asiatic  churches  were  the  presiding  officers  of 
the  same,  then  it  is  at  least  within  the  limits  of  possi- 
bility that  the  *  angel  of  the  Church  at  Laodicea,'  who 
received  the  letter,  was  Archippus. 

The  message  that  was  sent  to  Archippus  by  Paul  was 
this :  *  Take  heed  to  the  ministry  which  thou  hast 
received  of  the  Lord,  that  thou  fulfil  it.'  And  if  thirty 
years  had  passed,  and  then  Archippus  got  this  message : 
'  Thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot,'  you  have  an  example 
of  how  a  little  negligence  in  manifest  duty  on  the  part 
of  a  Christian  man  may  gradually  grow  and  spread, 
like  a  malignant  cancer,  until  it  has  eaten  all  the  life 
out  of  him,  and  left  him  a  mere  shell.  The  lesson  is 
for  us  all. 

But  whether  we  see  an  individual  application  in 
these  words  or  no,  certainly  the  '  angel  of  the  church ' 
is  spoken  of  in  his  character  of  a  representative  of  the 
whole  Church.  So,  then,  this  Laodicean  community 
had  no  works.  So  far  had  declension  gone  that  even 
Christ's  eye  could  see  no  sign  of  the  operation  of  the 
religious  principle  in  it;  and  all  that  He  could  say 
about  it  was, '  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot.' 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  first  and  the  last 
letters  to  the  seven  Churches  deal  with  the  same  phase 
of  religious  declension,  only  that  the  one  is  in  the 
germ  and  the  other  is  fully  developed.  The  Church  of 
Ephesus  had  still  works  abundant,  receiving  and  de- 
serving the  warm-hearted  commendation  of  the  Master, 
but  they  had  'left  their  first  love.'  The  Church  at 
Laodicea  had  no  works,  and  in  it  the  disease  had  sadly, 
and  all  but  universally,  spread. 

Now  then,  dear  friends,  I  intend,  not  in  the  way  of 
rebuke,  God  knows,  but  in  the  way  of  earnest  remon- 


vs.  15, 19]  LAODICEA  285 

strance  and  appeal  to  you  professing  Christians,  to 
draw  some  lessons  from  these  solemn  words. 

I.  I  pray  you  to  look  at  that  loving  rebuke  of  the 
faithful  Witness  :  '  Thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot.' 

"We  are  manifestly  there  in  the  region  of  emotion. 
The  metaphor  applies  to  feeling.  We  talk,  for  instance, 
about  warmth  of  feeling,  ardour  of  affection,  fervour 
of  love,  and  the  like.  And  the  opposite,  cold,  expresses 
obviously  the  absence  of  any  glow  of  a  true  living 
emotion. 

So,  then,  the  persons  thus  described  are  Christian 

people   (for  their   Christianity  is    presupposed),  with 

very  little,  though  a  little,  warmth  of  affection  and 

glow  of  Christian  love  and  consecration. 

r  /     Further,  this   defectiveness  of  Christian  feeling  is 

;'    accompanied  with  a  large  amount  of  self-complacency : 

!  I     — 'Thou  sayest  I  am  rich,  and  increased  with  goods, 

1  \    and  have  need  of  nothing ;  and  knowest  not  that  thou 

1  \   art  wretched,  and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and 

\  I  naked.'    Of  course  it  is  so.     A  numbed  limb  feels  no 

pain.     As  cold  increases  the  sensation  of  cold,  and  of 

everything  else,  goes  away.    And  a  sure  mark  of  defec- 

A  ^  tive  religious  emotion  is  absolute  unconsciousness  on 

I     the  man's  part  that  there  is  anything  the  matter  with 

/     him.     All  of  you  that  have  no  sense  that  the  indict- 

''       ment  applies  to  you,  by  the  very  fact  show  that  it 

applies  most  especially  and  most  tragically  to  you. 

Self-complacency  diagnoses  spiritual  cold,  and  is  an 

inevitable  and  a  constantly  accompanying  symptom  of 

a  deficiency  of  religious  emotion. 

Then  again,  this  deficiency  of  warmth  is  worse  than 
absolute  zero.  *  I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.'  That 
is  no  spurt  of  impatience  on  the  part  of  the  '  true 
Witness.'    It  is  for  their  sake  that  He  would  they  were 


286  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

cold  or  hot.  And  why?  Because  there  is  no  man 
more  hopeless  than  a  man  on  whom  the  power  of 
Christianity  has  been  brought  to  bear,  and  has  failed 
in  warming  and  quickening  him.  If  you  were  cold,  at 
absolute  zero,  there  would  be  at  least  a  possibility  that 
when  you  were  brought  in  contact  with  the  warmth 
you  might  kindle.  But  you  have  been  brought  in 
contact  with  the  warmth,  and  this  is  the  effect.  Then 
what  is  to  be  done  with  you  ?  There  is  nothing  more 
that  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  your  consciousness  to 
make  you  anything  higher  or  better  than  you  are, 
than  what  you  have  already  had  in  operation  in  your 
spiritual  life.  And  if  it  has  failed,  all  God's  armoury  is 
empty,  and  He  has  shot  His  last  bolt,  an.d  there  is 
nothing  more  left.     '  I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.' 

Now,  dear  friends,  is  that  our  condition  ?  I  am 
obliged  sadly  to  say  that  I  believe  it  is  to  a  fearful 
extent  the  condition  of  professing  Christendom  to-day. 
•Neither  cold  nor  hot!'  Look  at  the  standard  of 
Christian  life  round  about  us.  Let  us  look  into  our 
own  hearts.  Let  us  mark  how  wavering  the  line  is 
between  the  Church  and  the  world;  how  little  upon 
our  side  of  the  line  there  is  of  conspicuous  consecration 
and  unworldliness ;  how  entirely  in  regard  of  an 
enormous  mass  of  professing  Christians,  the  maxims 
that  are  common  in  the  world  are  their  maxims ;  and 
the  sort  of  life  that  the  world  lives  is  the  sort  of  life 
that  they  live.  '  Oh !  thou  that  art  named  the  House  of 
Israel,'  as  one  of  the  old  prophets  wailed  out,  *is  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  straitened?  Are  these  His  doings  ?' 
And  so  I  would  say,  look  at  your  churches  and  mark 
their  feebleness,  the  slow  progress  of  the  gospel  among 
them,  the  low  lives  that  the  bulk  of  us  professing 
Christians  are  living,  and  answer  the  question  :  Is  that 


vs.  15, 19]  LAODICEA  287 

4 
the  operation  of  a  Divine  Spirit  that  comes  to  trans- 
form and  to  quicken  everything  into  His  own  vivid 
and  flaming  life?  or  is  it  the  operation  of  our  own 
selfishness  and  worldliness,  crushing  down  and  hem- 
ming in  the  power  that  ought  to  sway  us  ?  Brethren  ! 
it  is  not  for  me  to  cast  condemnation,  but  it  is  for  each 
of  us  to  ask  ourselves  the  question :  Do  we  not  hear 
the  voice  of  the  '  faithful  and  true  Witness '  saying  to 
us,  *  I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  art  neither  cold 
nor  hot'? 

II.  And  now  will  you  let  me  say  a  word  next  as  to 
some  of  the  plain  causes  of  this  lukewarmness  of 
spiritual  life  ? 

Of  course  the  tendency  to  it  is  in  us  all.  Take  a  bar 
of  iron  out  of  the  furnace  on  a  winter  day,  and  lay  it 
down  in  the  air,  and  there  is  nothing  more  wanted. 
Leave  it  there,  and  very  soon  the  white  heat  will 
change  into  livid  dulness,  and  then  there  will  come  a 
scale  over  it,  and  in  a  short  time  it  will  be  as  cold  as 
the  frosty  atmosphere  around  it.  And  so  there  is 
always  a  refrigerating  process  acting  upon  us,  which 
needs  to  be  counteracted  by  continual  contact  with  the 
fiery  furnace  of  spiritual  warmth,  or  else  we  are  cooled 
down  to  the  degree  of  cold  around  us.  But  besides 
this  universally  operating  cause  there  are  many  others 
which  affect  us. 

Laodicea  was  a  great  commercial  city,  an  emporium 
of  trade,  which  gives  especial  point  and  appropriateness 
to  the  loving  counsel  of  the  context.  '  I  advise  thee  to 
buy  of  Me  gold  tried  in  the  fire.'  And  Manchester  life, 
with  its  anxieties,  with  its  perplexities  for  many  of 
you,  with  its  diminished  profits,  and  apparently  dimin- 
ishing trade,  is  a  fearful  foe  to  the  warmth  and  reality 
of  your  Christian  life.      The  cares  of  this  world,  and 


288  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

the  richea  of  this  world  are  both  amongst  the  thorns 
which  choke  the  Word  and  make  it  unfruitful.  I  find 
fault  with  no  man  for  the  earnestness  which  he  flings 
into  his  business,  but  I  ask  you  to  contrast  this  entire 
absorption  of  spirit,  and  the  willing  devotion  of  hours 
and  strength  to  it,  with  the  grudging,  and  the  partial, 
and  the  transient  devotion  of  ourselves  to  the  religious 
life ;  and  say  whether  the  relative  importance  of  the 
things  seen  and  unseen  is  fairly  represented  by  the 
relative  amount  of  earnestness  with  which  you  and  I 
pursue  these  respectively. 

Then,  again,  the  existence  among  us,  or  around  us, 
of  a  certain  widely  dififused  doubt  as  to  the  truths  of 
Christianity  is,  illogically  enough,  a  cause  for  dimin- 
ished fervour  on  the  part  of  the  men  that  do  not  doubt 
them.  That  is  foolish,  and  it  is  strange,  but  it  is  true. 
It  is  very  hard  for  us,  when  so  many  people  round 
about  us  are  denying,  or  at  least  are  questioning,  the 
verities  which  we  have  been  taught  to  believe,  to  keep 
the  freshness  and  the  fervour  of  our  devotion  to  these ; 
just  as  it  is  very  difficult  for  a  man  to  keep  up  the 
warmth  of  his  body  in  the  midst  of  some  creeping  mist 
that  enwraps  everything.  So  with  us,  the  presence,  in 
the  atmosphere  of  doubt,  depresses  the  vitality  and  the 
vigour  of  the  Christian  Church  where  it  does  not 
intensify  its  faith,  and  make  it  cleave  more  desperately 
to  the  things  that  are  questioned.  Beware,  then,  of 
unreasonably  yielding  so  far  to  the  influence  of  pre- 
vailing unbelief  as  to  make  you  grasp  with  a  slacker 
hand  the  thing  which  still  you  do  not  say  that  you 
doubt. 

And  there  is  another  case,  which  I  name  with  some 
hesitation,  but  which  yet  seems  to  me  to  be  worthy  of 
notice;  and  that  is,  the  increasing  degree  to  which 


▼8.  15, 19]  LAODICEA  289 

Christian  men  are  occupied  with  what  we  call,  for 
want  of  a  better  name,  secular  things.  The  leaders  in 
the  political  world,  on  both  sides,  in  our  great  com- 
mercial cities,  are  usually  professing  Christians.  I  am 
the  last  man  to  find  fault  with  any  Christian  man  for 
casting  himself,  so  far  as  his  opportunities  allow,  into 
the  current  of  political  life,  if  he  will  take  his  Christi- 
anity with  him,  and  if  he  will  take  care  that  he  does 
not  become  a  great  deal  more  interested  in  elections, 
and  in  pulling  the  strings  of  a  party,  and  in  working 
for  *  the  cause,'  than  he  is  in  working  for  his  Master. 
I  grudge  the  political  world  nothing  that  it  gets  of 
your  strength,  but  I  do  grudge,  for  your  sakes  as  well 
as  for  the  Church's  sake,  that  so  often  the  two  forms 
of  activity  are  supposed  by  professing  Christians  to  be 
incompatible,  and  that  therefore  the  more  important  is 
neglecwd,  and  the  less  important  done.  Suffer  the 
word  of  exhortation. 

And,  in  like  manner,  literature  and  art,  and  the 
ordinary  objects  of  interest  on  the  part  of  men  who 
have  no  religion,  are  coming  to  absorb  a  great  deal 
of  our  earnestness  and  our  energy.  I  would  not  with- 
draw one  iota  of  the  culture  that  now  prevails  largely 
in  the  Christian  Church.  All  that  I  plead  for,  dear 
brethren,  is  this,  '  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth.'  Go 
where  you  like,  and  fling  yourselves  into  all  manner  of 
interests  and  occupations,  only  carry  your  Master  with 
you.  And  remember  that  if  you  are  not  salting  the 
world,  the  world  is  putrefying  you. 

There  I  think  you  have  some,  though  it  be  imperfect, 
account  of  the  causes  which  operate  to  lower  the  tem- 
perature of  the  Christian  Church  in  general,  and  of 
this  Christian  Church,  and  of  you  as  individual  mem- 
bers of  it. 

T 


290  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

III.  Now,  further,  note  the  loving  call  here  to  deep- 
ened earnestness. 

•Be  zealous,  therefore.'  The  word  translated,  and 
rightly  translated,  zealous  means  literally  boiling  with 
heat  It  is  an  exhortation  to  fervour.  Now  there  is  no 
worse  thing  in  all  this  world  than  for  a  man  to  try  to 
work  up  emotion,  nothing  which  is  so  sure,  sooner  or 
later,  to  come  to  mischief,  sure  to  breed  hypocrisy  and 
all  manner  of  evil.  If  there  be  anything  that  is  worse 
than  trying  to  work  up  emotion,  it  is  attempting  to 
pretend  it.  So  when  our  Master  here  says  to  us,  *  Be 
zealous,  therefore,'  we  must  remember  that  zeal  in  a 
man  ought  to  be  a  consequence  of  knowledge;  and 
that,  seeing  that  we  are  reasonable  creatures,  intended 
to  be  guided  by  our  understandings,  it  is  an  upsetting 
of  the  whole  constitution  of  a  man's  nature  if  his  heart 
works  independently  of  his  head.  And  the  only  way 
in  which  we  can  safely  and  wholesomely  increase  our 
zeal  is  by  increasing  our  grasp  of  the  truths  which 
feed  it. 

Thus  the  exhortation,  '  Be  zealous,'  if  we  come  to 
analyse  it,  and  to  look  into  its  basis,  is  this — Lay  hold 
upon,  and  meditate  upon,  the  great  truths  that  will 
make  your  heart  glow.  Notice  that  this  exhortation 
is  a  consequence,  '  Be  zealous,  therefore,'  and  repent. 
Therefore,  and  what  precedes  ?  A  whole  series  of  con- 
siderations— such  as  these :  '  I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of 
Me  gold  tried  in  the  fire  .  .  .  and  white  raiment  .  .  . 
and  anoint  thine  eyes  with  eyesalve.'  Tl  t  is  to  say, 
lay  hold  of  the  truth  that  Christ  possesses  a  full  store 
of  all  that  you  can  want.  Meditate  on  that  great 
truth  and  it  will  kindle  a  flame  of  desire  and  of  fruition 
in  your  hearts.  *Be  zealous,  therefore.*  And  again, 
'  Ab  many  as  I  love  I  rebuke  and  chasten.'    *  Be  zealous, 


vs.  15, 19]  LAODICEA  291 

therefore.'  That  is  to  say,  grasp  the  great  thought  of 
the  loving  Christ,  all  whose  dealings,  even  when  His 
voice  assumes  severity,  and  His  hand  comes  armed 
with  a  rod,  are  the  outcome  and  manifestation  of  His 
love  ;  and  sink  into  that  love,  and  that  will  make  your 
hearts  glow.  '  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock.' 
*  Be  zealous,  therefore.'  Think  of  the  earnest,  patient, 
long-suffering  appeal  which  the  Master  makes,  bearing 
with  all  our  weaknesses  and  our  shortcomings,  and  not 
suffering  His  gentle  hand  to  be  turned  away,  though 
the  door  has  been  so  long  barred  and  bolted  in  His 
face.  And  let  these  sweet  thoughts  of  a  Christ  that 
gives  everything,  of  a  Christ  all  whose  dealings  are 
love,  of  a  Christ  who  pleads  with  us  through  the 
barred  door,  and  tries  to  get  at  us  through  the  obstaclos 
which  ourselves  have  fastened  against  Him,  l^t  them 
draw  us  to  Him,  and  kindle  and  keep  alight-a  brighter 
flame  of  consecration  and  of  devotwn  in  our  hearts  to 
Him.  'Be zealous.'  Feed nxvf»»r+-W  great  truths  of  the 
Gospel  whichjkindles  zeal. 

Brethren,  the  utmost  warmth  is  reasonable  in  re- 
ligion. If  Christianity  be  true,  there  is  no  measure  of 
ardour  or  of  consecration  which  is  beyond  the  reason- 
able requirements  of  the  case.  We  are  told  that  'a 
sober  standard  of  feeling  in  matters  of  religion '  is  the 
great  thing  to  aim  at.  So  I  say.  But  I  would  differ, 
perhaps,  with  the  people  that  are  fond  of  saying  so, 
in  my  definition  of  sobriety.  A  sober  standard  is  a 
standard  of  feeling  in  which  the  feeling  does  not  out- 
run the  facts  on  which  it  is  built.  Enthusiasm  is 
disproportionate  or  ignorant  feeling  ;  warmth  without 
light.  A  sober,  reasonable  feeling  is  the  emotion  which 
is  correspondent  to  the  truths  that  evoke  it.  And  will 
any  naau  tell  me  that  any  amount  of  earnestness,  of 


292  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

flaming  consecration,  of  fiery  zeal,  is  in  advance  of  the 
great  truths  that  Christ  loves  me,  and  has  given 
Himself  for  me  ? 

IV.  And  now,  lastly,  observe  the  merciful  call  to  a 
new  beginning :  *  Repent.' 

There  must  be  a  lowly  consciousness  of  sin,  a  clear 
vision  of  my  past  shortcomings,  an  abhorrence  of  these, 
and,  joined  with  that,  a  resolute  act  of  mind  and  heart 
beginning  a  new  course,  a  change  of  purpose  and  of 
the  current  of  my  being. 

Repentance  is  sorrow  for  the  past,  blended  with  a 
resolve  to  paste  down  the  old  leaf  and  begin  a  new 
writing  on  a  new  page.  Christian  men  have  need  of 
thesa  fresh  beginnings,  and  of  new  repentance,  even  as 
■the  patriarch  when  he  came  up  from  Egypt  went  to 
the  p».lace  where  'he  builded  the  altar  at  the  firsty 
and  the'j"*^  offered  sacrifice.  Do  not  you  be  ashamed, 
^Yiristian  men  and  women,  if  you  have  been  living 
low  and  inconsistent  Christian  lives  in  the  past,  to 
make  a  new  beginning  and  to  break  with  that  past. 
There  was  never  any  great  outburst  of  life  in  a  Christian 
Church  which  was  not  preceded  by  a  lowly  penitence. 
And  there  is  never  any  penitence  worth  naming  which 
is  not  preceded  by  a  recognition,  glad,  rapturous,  con- 
fident as  self-consciousness,  of  Christ's  great  and  in- 
finite love  to  me. 

Oh !  if  there  is  one  thing  that  we  want  more  than 
another  to-day,  it  is  that  the  fiery  Spirit  shall  come 
and  baptise  all  the  churches,  and  us  as  individual  mem- 
bers of  them.  What  was  it  that  finished  the  infidelity  of 
the  last  century?  Was  it  Paley  and  Butler,  with  their 
demonstrations  and  their  books  ?  No !  it  was  John 
Wesley  and  Whitefield.  Here  is  a  solution,  full  of 
microscopic  germs  that  will  putrefy.     Expose  it   to 


vs.  15, 19]      A  LUKEWARM  CHURCH  293 

heat,  raise  the  temperature,  and  you  will  kill  all  the  > 
germs,  so  that  you  may  keep  it  for  a  hundred  years, 
and  there  will  be  no  putrefaction  in  it.  Get  the  tem- 
perature of  the  Church  up,  and  all  the  evils  that  are 
eating  out  its  life  will  shrivel  and  drop  to  the  bottom 
dead.  They  cannot  live  in  the  heat ;  cold  is  their  region. 
So,  dear  brethren,  let  us  get  near  to  Christ's  love 
until  the  light  of  it  shines  in  our  own  faces.  Let  us 
get  near  to  Christ's  love  until,  like  coal  laid  upon  the 
fire,  its  fervours  penetrate  into  our  substance  and 
change  even  our  blackness  into  ruddy  flame.  Let  us 
get  nearer  to  the  love,  and  then,  though  the  world  may 
laugh  and  say,  '  He  hath  a  devil  and  is  mad,'  they  that 
see  more  clearly  will  say  of  us :  '  The  zeal  of  Thine 
house  hath  eaten  him  up,'  and  the  Father  will  say  even 
concerning  us :  '  This  is  My  beloved  son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased.' 


CHRIST'S  COUNSEL  TO  A  LUKEWARM  CHURCH 

'  I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  Me  gold  tried  in  the  fire,  that  thou  mayest  he  rich ;  and 
white  raiment,  that  thou  mayest  be  clothed,  and  that  the  shame  of  thy  nakedness 
do  not  appear ;  and  anoint  thine  eyes  with  eyesalve,  that  thou  mayest  see.' — 
Rev.  iii.  18. 

After  the  scathing  exposure  of  the  religious  condition 
of  this  Laodicean  Church  its  members  might  have  ex- 
pected something  sterner  than  'counsel.'  There  is  a 
world  of  love  and  pity,  with  a  dash  of  irony,  in  the  use 
of  that  softened  expression.  He  does  not  willingly 
threaten,  and  He  never  scolds ;  but  He  rather  speaks 
to  men's  hearts  and  their  reason,  and  comes  to  them 
as  a  friend,  than  addresses  Himself  to  their  fears. 

Whether  there  be  any  truth  or  not  in  the  old  idea 
that  these  letters  to  the  seven  churches  are  so  arranged 


294  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

as,  when  taken  in  sequence,  to  present  a  fore-glimpse 
of  the  successive  conditions  of  the  Church  till  the 
second  coming  of  our  Lord,  it  is  at  least  a  noteworthy 
fact  that  the  last  of  them  in  order  is  the  lowest  in 
spiritual  state.  That  church  was  '  lukewarm ' ;  •  neither 
cold '  —  untouched  by  the  warmth  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  at  all — *nor  hot' — adequately  inflamed  thereby. 

That  is  the  worst  sort  of  people  to  get  at,  and  it  is 
no  want  of  charity  to  say  that  Laodicea  is  repeated  in 
a  thousand  congregations,  and  that  Laodiceans  are 
prevalent  in  every  congregation.  All  our  Christian 
-j^  communities  are  hampered  by  a  mass  of  loose  adherents 

^^'^  '^act''  ^'^  with  no  warmth  of  consecration,  no  glow  of  affection, 
no  fervour  of  enthusiasm;  and  they  bring  down  the 
temperature,  as  snow-covered  mountains  over  which 
the  wind  blows  make  the  thermometer  drop  on  the 
plains.  It  is  not  for  me  to  diagnose  individual  con- 
ditions, but  it  is  for  me  to  take  note  of  widespread 
characteristics  and  strongly  running  currents;  and  it 
is  for  you  to  settle  whether  the  characteristics  are 
yours  or  not. 

So  I  deal  with  Christ's  advice  to  a  lukewarm  church, 
and  I  hope  to  do  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  Master  who 
counselled,  and  neither  scolded  nor  threatened. 

I.  Now  I  observe  that  the  first  need  of  the  lukewarm 
church  is  to  open  its  eyes  to  see  facts. 

I  take  it  that  the  order  in  which  the  points  of  this 
counsel  are  given  is  not  intended  to  be  the  order  in 
which  they  are  obeyed.  I  dare  say  there  is  no  thought 
of  sequence  in  the  succession  of  the  clauses.  But  if 
there  is,  I  think  that  a  little  consideration  will  show 
us  that  that  which  comes  last  in  mention  is  to  be  first 
in  fulfilment. 

Observe  that  the  text  falls  into  two  distinct  parts, 


V.  18]         A  LUKEWARM  CHUIPCH  297 

and  that  the  counsel  to  buy  does  not  extend— ^ejed,  and 
it  is  ordinarily  read  as  if  it  did — to  the  last  item  in  one- 
Lord's  advice.  These  Laodiceans  are  bid  to  'buy  of 
Him  *  gold '  and  '  raiment,'  but  they  are  bid  to  use  the 
'eyesalve'  that  they  '  may  see.*  No  doubt,  whatever  is 
meant  by  that  *  eyesalve  *  comes  from  Him,  as  does 
everything  else.  But  my  point  is  that  these  people  are 
supposed  already  to  possess  it,  and  that  they  are  bid  to 
employ  it.  And,  taking  that  point  of  view,  I  think  we 
can  come  to  the  understanding  of  what  is  meant. 

No  doubt  the  exhortation,  'anoint  thine  eyes  with 
eyesalve,  that  thou  mayest  see,'  may  be  so  extended  as 
to  refer  to  the  general  condition  of  spiritual  blindness 
which  attaches  to  humanity,  apart  from  the  illuminat- 
ing and  sight-giving  work  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  true 
Light,  which  lighteneth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world,  has  a  threefold  office  as  the  result  of  all  the 
parts  of  which  there  comes  to  our  darkened  eyes  the 
vision  of  the  things  that  are.  He  reveals  the  objects 
to  see ;  He  gives  the  light  by  which  we  see  them  ;  and 
He  gives  us  eyes  to  see  with.  He  shows  us  God,  im- 
mortality, duty,  men's  condition,  men's  hopes,  and  He 
takes  from  us  the  cataract  which  obscures,  the  short- 
sightedness which  prevents  us  from  beholding  things 
that  are  far  off.  and  the  obliquity  of  vision  which 
forbids  us  to  look  steadily  and  straight  at  the  things 
.which  it  is  worth  our  while  to  behold.  '  For  judgment 
am  I  come  into  the  world,'  said  He,  '  that  they  which 
see  not  might  see.'  And  it  is  possible  that  the  general 
illuminating  influence  of  Christ's  mission  and  work, 
and  especially  the  illuminating  power  of  His  Spirit 
dwelling  in  men's  spirits,  may  be  included  in  the 
thoughts  of  the  eyesalve  with  which  we  are  to  anoint 
our  eyes. 


294.  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

as  wh^>ifr.e  context  seems  to  me  rather  to  narrow  the 
of  ^o®  of  t^®  meaning  of  this  part  of  our  Lord's  counsel. 
Jb'or  these  Laodiceans  had  the  conceit  of  their  own 
sufficing  wealth,  of  their  own  prosperous  religious  con- 
dition, and  were  blind  as  bats  to  the  real  facts  that 
they  were  •  miserable  and  poor  and  naked.'  Therefore 
our  Lord  says  :  •  Anoint  thine  eyes  with  eyesalve,  that 
thou  mayest  see — recognise  your  true  state;  do  not 
live  in  this  dream  that  you  are  satisfactorily  united  to 
Myself,  when  all  the  while  the  thread  of  connection  is 
so  slender  that  it  is  all  but  snapped.  Behold  Me  as  I 
am,  and  the  things  that  I  reveal  to  you  as  they  are ; 
and  then  you  will  see  yourselves  as  you  are.' 

So,  then,  there  comes  out  of  this  exhortation  this 
thought,  that  a  symptom  constantly  accompanying  the 
lukewarm  condition  is  absolute  unconsciousness  of  it. 
In  all  regions  the  worse  a  man  is  the  less  he  knows  it. 
It  is  the  good  people  that  know  themselves  to  be  bad; 
the  bad  ones,  when  they  think  about  themselves, 
conceit  themselves  to  be  good.  It  is  the  men  in  the 
van  of  the  march  that  feel  the  prick  of  the  impulse  to 
press  farther :  the  laggards  are  quite  content  to  stop 
in  the  rear.  The  higher  a  man  climbs,  in  any  science, 
or  in  the  practice  of  any  virtue,  the  more  clearly  he 
sees  the  unsealed  peaks  above  him.  The  frost-bitten 
limb  is  quite  comfortable.  It  is  when  life  begins  to 
come  back  into  it  that  it  tingles  and  aches.  And  so 
these  Laodiceans  were  like  the  Jewish  hero  of  old,  who 
prostituted  his  strength,  and  let  them  shear  away  his 
locks  while  his  lazy  head  lay  in  the  harlot's  lap :  he 
went  out  '  to  shake  himself '  as  of  old  times,  and  knew 
not  that  the  Spirit  of  God  had  departed  from  him.  So, 
brethren,  the  man  in  this  audience  who  most  needs 
to  be  roused  and  startled  into  a  sense  of  his  tepid 


V.  18]         A  LUKEWARM  CHURCH  297 

religionism  is  the  man  that  least  suspects  the  need,  and 
would  be  most  surprised  if  a  more  infallible  and  pene- 
trating voice  than  mine  were  to  come  and  say  to  him, 
'Thou — thou  art  the  man.'  'Anoint  thine  eyes  with 
eyesalve,  that  thou  mayest  see ' ;  and  let  the  light, 
which  Christ  pours  upon  unseen  things,  pour  itself 
revealing  into  your  hearts,  that  you  may  no  longer 
dream  of  yourselves  as  '  rich,  and  increased  with  goods, 
and  having  need  of  nothing ';  but  may  know  that  you 
are  poor  and  blind  and  naked. 

Another  thought  suggested  by  this  part  of  the  coun- 
sel is  that  the  blind  man  must  himself  rub  in  the 
eyesalve.  Nobody  else  can  do  it  for  him.  True !  it 
comes,  like  every  other  good  thing,  from  the  Christ  in 
the  heavens;  and,  as  I  have  already  said,  if  we  will 
attach  specific  meanings  to  every  part  of  a  metaphor, 
that  *  eyesalve '  may  be  the  influence  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  who  convicts  men  of  sin.  But  whatever  it  is, 
you  have  to  apply  it  to  your  own  eyes.  Translate  that 
into  plain  English,  and  it  is  just  this,  by  the  light  of 
the  knowledge  of  God  and  duty  and  human  nature, 
which  comes  rushing  in  a  flood  of  illumination  from 
the  central  sun  of  Christ's  mission  and  character,  test 
yourselves.  Our  forefathers  made  too  much  of  self- 
examination  as  a  Christian  duty,  and  pursued  it  often 
for  mistaken  purposes.  But  this  generation  makes  far 
too  light  of  it.  Whilst  I  would  not  say  to  anybody, 
'  Poke  into  the  dark  places  of  your  own  hearts  in  order 
to  find  out  whether  you  are  Christian  people  or  not,* 
for  that  will  only  come  to  diffidence  and  despair,  I 
would  say,  *  Do  not  be  a  stranger  to  yourselves,  but 
judge  yourselves  rigidly,  by  the  standard  of  God's 
Word,  of  Christ's  example,  and  in  all  your  search,  ask 
Him  to  give  you  that  'candle  of  the  Lord,'  which  will 


298  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

shine  into  the  dustiest  corners  and  the  darkest  of  our 
hearts,  and  reveal  to  us,  if  we  truly  wish  it,  all  the 
cobwebs  and  unconsidered  litter  and  rubbish,  if  not 
venomous  creatures,  that  are  gathered  there.  Apply 
the  eyesalve ;  it  will  be  keen,  it  will  bite ;  welcome  the 
smart,  and  be  sure  that  anything  is  good  for  you  which 
takes  away  the  veil  that  self-complacency  casts  over 
your  true  condition,  and  lets  the  light  of  God  into  the 
cellars  and  dark  places  of  your  souls. 

II.  The  second  need  of  the  lukewarm  church  is  the 
true  wealth  which  Christ  gives. 

*  I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  Me  gold  tried  in  the  fire.' 
Now  there  may  be  many  different  ways  of  putting  the 
thought  that  is  conveyed  here,  but  I  think  the  deepest 
truth  of  human  nature  is  that  the  only  wealth  for  a 
man  is  the  possession  of  God.  And  so  instead  of,  as 
many  commentators  do,  suggesting  interpretations 
which  seem  to  me  to  be  inadequate,  I  think  we  go  to 
the  root  of  the  matter  when  we  find  the  meaning  of 
the  wealth  which  Christ  counsels  us  to  buy  of  Him  in 
the  possession  of  God  Himself,  who  is  our  true  treasure 
and  durable  riches. 

That  wealth  alone  makes  us  paupers  truly  rich.  For 
there  is  nothing  else  that  satisfies  a  man's  craving  and 
supplies  a  man's  needs.  '  He  that  loveth  silver  shall 
not  be  satisfied  with  silver,  nor  he  that  loveth  abund- 
ance, with  increase ' ;  but  if  we  have  the  gold  of  God, 
we  are  rich  to  all  intents  of  bliss  ;  and  if  we  have  Him 
not,  if  we  are  *  for  ever  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart,' 
and  though  we  may  have  a  large  balance  at  our 
bankers,  and  much  wealth  in  our  coffers,  and  *  houses 
full  of  silver  and  gold,'  we  are  poor  indeed. 

That  wealth  has  immunity  from  all  accidents.  No 
possession  is  truly  mine  of  which  any  outward  con- 


V.18]         A  LUKEWARM  CHURCH  299 

tingency  or  circumstance  can  deprive  me.  But  this 
wealth,  the  wealth  of  a  heart  enriched  with  the  posses- 
sion of  God,  whom  it  knows,  loves,  trusts,  and  obeys, 
this  wealth  is  incorporated  with  a  man's  very  being, 
and  enters  into  the  substance  of  his  nature;  and  so 
nothing  can  deprive  him  of  it.  That  which  moth  or 
rust  can  corrupt ;  that  which  thieves  can  break  through 
and  steal ;  that  which  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  accidents 
of  a  commercial  community  or  of  the  fluctuations  of 
trade ;  that  is  no  wealth  for  a  man.  Only  something 
which  passes  into  me,  and  becomes  so  interwoven  with 
my  being  as  is  the  dye  with  the  wool,  is  truly  wealth 
for  me.    And  such  wealth  is  God. 

The  only  possession  which  we  can  take  with  us  when 
our  nerveless  hands  drop  all  other  goods,  and  our  hearts 
are  untwined  from  all  other  loves,  is  this  durable  riches. 
*  Shrouds  have  no  pockets,'  as  the  grim  proverb  has  it. 
But  the  man  that  has  God  for  his  portion  carries  all 
his  riches  with  him  into  the  darkness,  whilst  of  the 
man  that  made  creatures  his  treasure  it  is  written : 
'  His  glory  shall  not  descend  after  him.'  Therefore, 
dear  brethren,  let  us  all  listen  to  that  counsel,  and  buy 
of  Jesus  gold  that  is  tried  in  the  fire. 

III.  The*  third  need  of  a  lukewarm  church  is  the 
raiment  that  Christ  gives. 

The  wealth  which  He  bids  us  buy  of  Him  belongs 
mostly  to  our  inward  life ;  the  raiment  which  He  prof- 
fers us  to  wear,  as  is  natural  to  the  figure,  applies 
mainly  to  our  outward  lives,  and  signifies  the  dress 
of  our  spirits  as  these  are  presented  to  the  world. 

I  need  not  remind  you  of  how  frequently  this  meta- 
phor is  employed  throughout  the  Scriptures,  both  in  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testament — from  the  vision  granted 
to  one  of  the  prophets,  in  which  he  saw  the  high  priest 


300  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

standing  before  God,  clothed  in  filthy  garments,  which 
were  taken  off  him  by  angel  hands,  and  he  draped  in 
pure  and  shining  vestures — down  to  our  Lord's  parable 
of  the  man  that  had  not  on  the  wedding  garment ;  and 
Paul's  references  to  putting  off  and  putting  on  the  old 
and  the  new  man  with  his  deeds.  Nor  need  I  dwell 
upon  the  great  frequency  with  which,  in  this  book  of 
the  Revelation,  the  same  figure  occurs.  But  the  sum 
and  substance  of  the  whole  thing  is  just  this,  that  we 
can  get  from  Jesus  Christ  characters  that  are  pure  and 
radiant  with  the  loveliness  and  the  candour  of  His 
own  perfect  righteousness.  Mark  that  here  we  are 
not  bidden  to  put  on  the  garment,  but  to  take  it  from 
His  hands.  True,  having  taken  it,  we  are  to  put  it  on, 
and  that  implies  daily  effort.  So  my  text  puts  this 
counsel  in  its  place  in  the  whole  perspective  of  a  com- 
bined Christian  truth,  and  suggests  the  combination 
of  faith  which  receives,  and  of  effort  which  puts  on, 
the  garment  that  Christ  gives.  No  thread  of  it  is 
woven  in  our  own  looms,  nor  have  we  the  making  of 
the  vesture,  but  we  have  the  wearing  of  it. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  world  vainer  than  effort  after 
righteousness  which  is  not  based  on  faith.  There  is 
nothing  more  abnormal  and  divergent  froni  the  true 
spirit  of  the  New  Testament  than  faith,  so-called, 
which  is  not  accompanied  with  daily  effort.  On  the 
one  hand  we  must  be  contented  to  receive;  on  the 
other  hand  we  must  be  earnest  to  appropriate.  '  Buy 
of  Me  gold,'  and  then  we  are  rich.  '  Buy  of  Me  raiment,' 
and  then — listen  to  the  voice  that  says,  •  Put  off  the  old 
man  with  his  deeds,  and  put  on  the  new  man  of  God 
created  in  righteousness  and  holiness  of  truth.' 

IV.  Lastly,  all  supply  of  these  needs  is  to  be 
bought. 

'  Buy  of  Me.'    There  is  nothing  in  that  counsel  con- 


V.18]  A  LUKEWARM  CHURCH  801 

tradictory  to  the  great  truth  that  '  the  gift  of  God  is 
eternal  life.'  That  buying  is  explained  by  the  great 
gospel  invitation,  long  centuries  before  the  gospel — 
'  Ho !  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters, 
.  .  .  buy,  and  eat,  .  .  .  without  money  and  without 
price.'  It  is  explained  by  our  Lord's  twin  parables  of 
the  treasure  hid  in  a  field,  which,  when  a  man  had 
found,  he  went  and  sold  all  that  he  had  and  bought  the 
field ;  and  of  the  pearl  of  great  price  which,  when  the 
merchantman  searching  had  discovered,  he  went  and 
sold  all  that  he  had  that  he  might  possess  the  one. 

For  what  is  •  all  that  we  have '  ?  Self !  and  we  have 
to  give  away  self  that  we  may  buy  the  riches  and  the 
robes.  The  only  thing  that  is  needed  is  to  get  rid,  once 
and  for  all,  of  that  conceit  that  we  have  anything  that 
we  can  offer  as  the  equivalent  for  what  we  desire.  He 
that  has  opened  his  eyes,  and  sees  himself  as  he  is,  poor 
and  naked,  and  so  comes  to  sue  in  formd  pauperis,  and 
abandons  all  trust  in  self,  he  is  the  man  who  buys  of 
Christ  the  gold  and  the  vesture.  If  we  will  thus  rightly 
estimate  ourselves,  and  estimating  ourselves,  have  not 
only  the  negative  side  of  faith,  which  is  self-distrust, 
but  the  positive,  which  is  absolute  reliance  on  Him,  we 
shall  not  ask  in  vain.  He  counsels  us  to  buy,  and  if  we 
take  His  advice  and  come,  saying,  '  Nothing  in  my  hand 
I  bring,'  He  will  not  stultify  Himself  by  refusing  to 
give  us  what  He  has  bid  us  ask.  '  What  things  were 
given  to  me ;  those  I  counted  loss  for  Christ.  Yea ! 
doubtless,  and  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excel- 
lency of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord.'  If 
we,  with  opened  eyes,  go  to  Him  thus,  we  shall  come 
away  from  Him  enriched  and  clothed,  and  say,  '  My 
soul  shall  be  joyful  in  my  God,  for  He  hath  clothed  me 
with  the  garments  of  salvation ;  He  hath  covered  me 
with  the  robe  of  righteousness.' 


CHRIST  AT  THE  DOOR 

'  Behold,  I  stand  at  tbe  door,  and  knock :  if  any  man  hear  My  voice,  and  open  the 
door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me.'— Rev.  iii.  20. 

Many  of  us  are  familiar,  I  dare  say,  with  the  devoutly 
imaginative  rendering  of  the  first  part  of  these  won- 
derful words,  which  we  owe  to  the  genius  of  a  living 
painter.  In  it  we  see  the  fast  shut  door,  with  rusted 
hinges,  all  overgrown  with  rank,  poisonous  weeds, 
which  tell  how  long  it  has  been  closed.  There  stands, 
amid  the  night  dews  and  the  darkness,  the  patient 
Son  of  man,  one  hand  laid  on  the  door,  the  other  bear- 
ing a  light,  which  may  perchance  flash  through  some 
of  its  chinks.  In  His  face  are  love  repelled,  and  pity 
all  but  wasted ;  in  the  touch  of  His  hand  are  gentleness 
and  authority. 

But  the  picture  pauses,  of  course,  at  the  beginning  of 
my  text,  and  its  sequel  is  quite  as  wonderful  as  its 
first  part.  •  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and  sup  with  him, 
and  he  with  Me.'  What  can  surpass  such  words  as 
these  ?  I  venture  to  take  this  great  text,  and  ask  you 
to  look  with  me  at  the  three  things  that  lie  in  it ;  the 
suppliant  for  admission  ;  the  door  opened ;  the  entrance, 
and  the  feast. 

I.  Think,  then,  first  of  all,  of  that  suppliant  for 
admission. 

I  suppose  that  the  briefest  explanation  of  my  text  is 
sufficient.  Who  knocks?  The  exalted  Christ.  What 
is  the  door?  This  closed  heart  of  man.  What  does 
He  desire?  Entrance.  What  are  His  knockings  and 
His  voice  ?  All  providences ;  all  monitions  of  His 
Spirit  in  man's  spirit  and  conscience ;  the  direct  invita- 
tions of  His  written  or  spoken  word ;  in  brief,  whatso- 

802 


V  20]  CHRIST  AT  THE  DOOR  803 

ever  sways  our  hearts  to  yield  to  Him  and  enthrone 
Him.  This  is  the  meaning,  in  the  fewest  possible 
words,  of  the  great  utterance  of  my  text. 

Here  is  a  revelation  of  a  universal  truth,  applying  to 
every  man  and  woman  on  the  face  of  the  earth ;  but 
more  especially  and  manifestly  to  those  of  us  who  live 
within  the  sound  of  Christ's  gospel  and  of  the  written 
revelations  of  His  grace.  True,  my  text  was  originally 
spoken  in  reference  to  the  unworthy  members  of  a 
little  church  of  early  believers  in  Asia  Minor,  but  it 
passes  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  lukewarm  Lao- 
diceans  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  And  the  'any 
man '  which  follows  is  wide  enough  to  warrant  us  in 
stretching  out  the  representation  as  far  as  the  bounds 
of  humanity  extend,  and  in  believing  that  wherever 
there  is  a  closed  heart  there  is  a  knocking  Christ,  and 
that  all  men  are  lightened  by  that  Light  which  came 
into  the  world. 

Upon  that  I  do  not  need  to  dwell,  but  I  desire  to 
enforce  the  individual  bearing  of  the  general  truth 
upon  our  own  consciences,  and  to  come  to  each  with 
this  message:  The  saying  is  true  about  thee,  and  at 
the  door  of  thy  heart  Jesus  Christ  stands,  and  there 
His  gentle,  mighty  hand  is  laid,  and  on  it  the  flashes  of 
His  light  shine,  and  through  the  chinks  of  the  un- 
opened door  of  thy  heart  comes  the  beseeching  voice, 
•  Open !  Open  unto  Me.'  A  strange  reversal  of  the 
attitudes  of  the  great  and  of  the  lowly,  of  the  giver 
and  of  the  receiver,  of  the  Divine  and  of  the  human ! 
Christ  once  said,  •  Knock  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you.'  But  He  has  taken  the  suppliant's  place, 
and,  standing  by  the  side  of  each  of  us.  He  beseeches 
us  that  we  let  Him  bless  us,  and  enter  in  for  our 
rest. 


804  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

So,  then,  there  is  here  a  revelation,  not  only  of  a 
universal  truth,  but  a  most  tender  and  pathetic  dis- 
closure of  Christ's  yearning  love  to  each  of  us.  What 
do  you  call  that  emotion  which  more  than  anything 
else  desires  that  a  heart  should  open  and  let  it  enter  ? 
We  call  it  love  when  we  find  it  in  one  another.  Surely 
it  bears  the  same  name  when  it  is  sublimed  into  all 
but  infinitude,  and  yet  it  is  as  individualising  and 
specific  as  it  is  great  and  universal,  as  it  is  found  in 
Jesus  Christ.  If  it  be  true  that  He  wants  me,  if  it  be 
true  that  in  that  great  heart  of  His  there  are  a  thought 
and  a  wish  about  His  relation  to  me,  and  mine  to  Him, 
then,  then,  each  of  us  is  grasped  by  a  love  that  is  like 
our  human  love,  only  perfected  and  purified  from  all 
its  weaknesses. 

Now  we  sometimes  feel,  I  am  afraid,  as  if  all  that 
talk  about  the  love  which  Jesus  Christ  has  to  each  of 
us  was  scarcely  a  prose  fact.  There  is  a  woeful  lack  of 
belief  among  us  in  the  things  that  we  profess  to  believe 
most.  You  are  all  ready  to  admit,  when  I  preach  it, 
that  it  is  true  that  Jesus  Christ  loves  us.  Have  you 
ever  tried  to  realise  it,  and  lay  it  upon  your  hearts, 
that  the  sweetness  and  astoundingness  of  it  may  soak 
into  you,  and  change  your  whole  being?  Oh!  listen, 
not  to  my  poor,  rough  notes,  but  to  His  infinitely 
sweet  and  tender  melody  of  voice,  when  He  says  to 
you,  as  if  your  eyes  needed  to  be  opened  to  perceive  it, 
'  Behold  !  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock.' 

There  is  a  revelation  in  the  words,  dear  friends,  of 
an  infinite  long-suffering  and  patience.  The  door  has 
long  been  fastened;  you  and  I  have,  like  some  lazy 
servant,  thought  that  if  we  did  not  answer  the  knock, 
the  Knocker  would  go  away  when  He  was  weary. 
But  we    have   miscalculated   the    elasticity  and    the 


V.  JO]  CHRIST  AT  THE  DOOR  805 

unfailingness  of  that  patient  Christ's  lore.  Rejected, 
He  abides;  spurned,  He  returns.  There  are  men  and 
women  who  all  their  lives  long  have  known  that  Jesus 
Christ  coveted  their  love,  and  yearned  for  a  place  in 
their  hearts,  and  have  steeled  themselves  against  the 
knowledge,  or  frittered  it  away  by  worldliness,  or 
darkened  it  by  sensuality  and  sin.  And  they  are  once 
more  brought  into  the  presence  of  that  rejected, 
patient,  wooing  Lord,  who  courts  them  for  their  souls, 
as  if  they  were,  which  indeed  they  are,  too  precious  to 
be  lost,  as  long  as  there  is  a  ghost  of  a  chance  that 
they  may  still  listen  to  His  voice.  The  patient  Christ's 
wonderfulness  of  long-suffering  may  well  bow  us  all 
in  thankfulness  and  in  penitence.  How  often  has  He 
tapped  or  thundered  at  the  door  of  your  heart,  dear 
friends,  and  how  often  have  you  neglected  to  open? 
Is  it  not  of  the  Lord's  mercies  that  the  rejected  or 
neglected  love  is  offered  you  once  more  ?  and  the  voice, 
so  long  deadened  and  deafened  to  your  ears  by  the 
rush  of  passion,  and  the  hurry  of  business,  and  the 
whispers  of  self,  yet  again  appeals  to  you,  as  it  does 
even  through  my  poor  translation  of  it. 

And  then,  still  further,  in  that  thought  of  the 
suppliant  waiting  for  admission  there  is  the  explana- 
tion for  us  all  of  a  great  many  misunderstood  facts  in 
our  experience.  That  sorrow  that  darkened  your  days 
and  made  your  heart  bleed,  what  was  it  but  Christ's 
hand  on  the  door  ?  Those  blessings  which  pour  into 
your  life  day  by  day  '  beseech  you,  by  the  mercies  of 
God,  that  ye  yield  yourselves  living  sacrifices.'  That 
unrest  which  dogs  the  steps  of  every  man  who  has  not 
found  rest  in  Christ,  what  is  it  but  the  application  of 
His  hand  to  the  obstinately  closed  door  ?  The  stings 
of  conscience,  the  movements  of  the  Spirit,  the  definite 

u 


306  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

proclamation  of  His  Word,  even  by  such  lips  as  mine, 
what  are  they  all  except  His  appeals  to  us  ?  And  this 
is  the  deepest  meaning  of  joys  and  sorrows,  of  gifts 
and  losses,  of  fulfilled  and  disappointed  hopes.  This  is 
the  meaning  of  the  yearning  of  Christless  hearts,  of 
the  stings  of  conscience  which  come  to  us  all.  '  Behold ! 
I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock.'  If  we  understood 
better  that  all  life  was  guided  by  Christ,  and  that 
Christ's  guidance  of  life  was  guided  by  His  desire  that 
He  should  find  a  place  in  our  hearts,  we  should  less 
frequently  wonder  at  sorrows,  and  should  better 
understand  our  blessings. 
/^  The  boy  Samuel,  lying  sleeping  before  the  light 
^  in  the  inner  sanctuary,  heard  the  voice  of  God,  and 
thought  it  was  only  the  grey-bearded  priest  that 
spoke.  We  often  make  the  same  mistake,  and  con- 
found the  utterances  of  Christ  Himself  with  the  speech 
of  men.  Recognise  who  it  is  that  pleads  with  you; 
and  do  not  fancy  that  when  Christ  speaks  it  is  Eli  that 
is  calling ;  but  say,  *  Speak,  Lord !  for  Thy  servant 
heareth.'  'Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates,  even  lift 
them  up,  ye  everlasting  doors,  and  the  King  of  Glory 
shall  come  in.' 

II.  And  that  leads  me,  secondly,  to  ask  you  to  look 
at  the  door  opened. 

I  need  not  enlarge  upon  what  I  have  already 
suggested,  the  universality  of  the  wide  promise  here — 
'  If  any  man  open  the  door ' ;  but  what  I  want  rather 
to  notice  is  that,  according  to  this  representation,  '  the 
door'  has  no  handle  outside,  and  is  so  hinged  that  it 
opens  from  within,  outwards.  Which,  being  taken  out 
of  metaphor  and  put  into  fact,  means  this,  you  are  the 
only  being  that  can  open  the  door  for  Christ  to  come 
in.    The  whole  responsibility,  brother,  of  accepting  or 


\ 


V.  20]  CHRIST  AT  THE  DOOR  307 

rejecting  God's  gracious  Word,  which  comes  to  you  all 
in  good  faith,  lies  with  yourself. 

I  am  not  going  to  plunge  into  theological  puzzles, 
but  I  appeal  to  consciousness.  You  know  as  well  as  I 
do — better  a  great  deal,  for  it  is  yourself  that  is  in 
question  —  that  at  each  time  when  your  heart  and 
conscience  have  been  brought  in  contact  with  the  offer 
of  salvation  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  if  you  had 
liked  you  could  have  opened  the  door,  and  welcomed 
His  entrance.  And  you  know  that  nobody  and  nothing 
kept  it  fast  except  only  yourselves.  '  Ye  will  not  come 
to  Me,*  said  Christ,  'that  ye  might  have  life.'  Men^ 
indeed,  do  pile  up  such  mountains  of  rubbish  against 
the  door  that  it  cannot  be  opened,  but  it  was  they 
that  put  them  there ;  and  they  are  responsible  if  the 
hinges  are  so  rusty  that  they  will  not  move,  or  the 
doorway  is  so  clogged  that  there  is  no  room  for  it  to 
open.  Jesus  Christ  knocks,  but  Jesus  Christ  cannot 
break  the  door  open.  It  lies  in  your  hands  to  decide 
whether  you  will  take  or  whether  you  will  reject  that 
which  He  brings. 

The  door  is  closed,  and  unless  there  be  a  definite  act 
on  your  parts  it  will  not  be  opened,  and  He  will  not 
enter.  So  we  come  to  this,  that  to  do  nothing  is  to 
keep  your  Saviour  outside;  and  that  is  the  way  in 
which  most  men  that  miss  Him  do  miss  Him. 

I  suppose  there  are  very  few  of  us  who  have  ever 
been  conscious  of  a  definite  act  by  which,  if  I  might 
adhere  to  the  metaphor,  we  have  laid  hold  of  the  door 
on  the  Inside,  and  held  it  tight  lest  it  should  be  opened. 
But,  I  fear  me,  there  are  many  who  have  sat  in  the 
inner  chamber,  and  heard  the  gracious  hand  on  the 
outer  panel,  and  have  kept  their  hands  folded  and 
their  feet  still,  and  done  nothing.    Ah !  brethren,  to  do 


a08  REVELATION  [ch.iii. 

nothing  is  to  do  the  most  dreadful  of  things,  for  it  is 
to  keep  the  shut  door  shut  in  the  face  of  Christ.  No 
passionate  antagonism  is  needed,  no  vehement  rejec- 
tion, no  intellectual  denial  of  His  truth  and  His 
promises.  If  you  want  to  ruin  yourselves,  you  have 
simply  to  do  nothing !  All  the  dismal  consequences 
will  necessarily  follow. 

*  Well,'  you  say,  *  but  you  are  talking  metaphors ;  let 
us  come  to  plain  facts.  What  do  you  want  me  to  do  ? ' 
I  want  you  to  listen  to  the  message  of  an  infinitely 
loving  Christ  who  died  on  the  Cross  to  bear  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world,  including  you  and  me  ;  and  who  now 
lives,  pleading  with  each  of  us  from  heaven  that  we 
will  take  by  simple  faith,  and  keep  by  holy  obedience, 
the  gift  of  eternal  life  which  He  offers,  and  He  alone 
can  give.  The  condition  of  His  entrance  is  simple 
\  trust  in  Him,  as  the  Saviour  of  my  soul.  That  is  open- 
ing the  door,  and  if  you  will  do  that,  then,  just  as 
■when  you  open  the  shutters,  in  comes  the  sunshine; 
just  as  when  you  lift  the  sluice  in  flows  the  crystal 
stream  into  the  slimy,  empty  lock,  so — I  was  going  to 
say  by  gravitation,  rather  by  the  diffusive  impulse 
that  belongs  to  light,  which  is  Christ — He  will  enter 
in,  wherever  He  is  not  shut  out  by  unbelief  and 
aversion  of  will. 

III.  And  so  that  brings  me  to  my  last  point,  viz.,  the 
entrance  and  the  feast. 

My  text  is  a  metaphor,  but  the  declaration  that  '  if 
any  man  ojjen  the  door '  Jesus  Christ  '  will  come  in  to 
him,'  is  not  a  metaphor,  but  is  the  very  heart  and 
centre  of  the  Gospel,  '  I  will  come  in  to  him,'  dwell  in 
him,  be  really  incorporated  in  his  being,  or  inspirited, 
if  I  may  so  say,  in  his  spirit.  Now  you  may  think 
that  that  is  far  too  recondite  and  lofty  a  thought  to  be 


V.  20]  CHRIST  AT  THE  DOOR  809 

easily  grasped  by  ordinary  people,  but  its  very  loftiness 
should  recommend  it  to  us.  I,  for  my  part,  believe 
that  there  is  no  more  prose  fact  in  the  whole  world 
than  the  actual  dwelling  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God  who  is  in  heaven,  in  the  spirits  of  the  people  that 
love  Him  and  trust  Him.  And  this  is  one  great  part 
of  the  Gospel  that  I  have  to  preach  to  you,  that  into 
our  emptiness  He  will  come  with  His  fulness ;  that 
into  our  sinfulness  He  will  come  with  His  righteous- 
ness ;  that  into  our  death  He  will  come  with  His 
triumphant  and  immortal  life ;  and  He  being  in  us  and 
we  in  Him,  we  shall  be  full  and  pure  and  live  for  ever, 
and  be  blessed  with  the  blessedness  of  Jesus.  So 
remember  that  embedded  in  the  midst  of  the  wonder- 
ful metaphor  of  my  text  lies  the  fact,  which  is  the  very 
centre  of  the  Gospel  hope,  the  dwelling  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  the  hearts  even  of  poor  sinful  creatures  like  you 
and  me. 

But  it  comes  into  view  here  only  as  the  basis  of  the 
subsequent  promises,  and  on  these  I  can  only  touch 
very  briefly,  'I  will  come  in  to  him  and  sup  with  him, 
and  he  with  Me.'  Well,  that  speaks  to  us  in  lovely, 
sympathetic  language  of  a  close,  familiar,  happy  com- 
munication between  Christ  and  my  poor  self,  which 
shall  make  all  life  as  a  feast  in  company  with  Him. 
We  remember  who  is  the  mouthpiece  of  Jesus  Christ 
here.  It  is  the  disciple  who  knew  most  of  what  quiet- 
ness of  blessedness  and  serenity  of  adoring  communion 
there  were  in  leaning  on  Christ's  breast  at  supper, 
casting  back  his  head  on  that  loving  bosom ;  looking 
into  those  deep  sad  eyes,  and  asking  questions  which 
were  sure  of  answer.  And  John,  as  he  wrote  down 
the  words  '  I  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me,'  per- 
haps remembered  that  upper  room  where,  amidst  all 


310  REVELATION  [ch.iii. 

the  bitter  herbs,  there  was  such  strange  joy  and  tran- 
quillity. But  whether  he  did  or  no,  may  we  not  take 
the  picture  as  suggesting  to  us  the  possibilities  of 
loving  fellowship,  of  quiet  repose,  of  absolute  satis- 
faction of  all  desires  and  needs,  which  will  be  ours  if 
we  open  the  door  of  our  hearts  by  faith  and  let  Jesus 
Christ  come  in  ? 

But,  note,  when  He  does  come  He  comes  as  guest. 
'  I  will  sup  with  him.'  *  He  shall  have  the  honour  of 
providing  that  of  which  I  partake.'  Just  as  upon  earth 
He  said  to  the  Samaritan  woman,  *  Give  Me  to  drink,* 
or  sat  at  the  table,  at  the  modest  village  feast  in 
Bethany,  in  honour  of  the  miracle  of  a  man  raised 
from  the  dead,  and  smiled  approval  of  Martha  serving, 
as  of  Lazarus  sitting  at  table,  and  of  Mary  anointing 
Him,  so  the  huml^e  viands,  the  poor  man's  fare  that 
our  resources  enable  us  to  lay  upon  His  table,  are  never 
oo  small  or  poor  for  Him  to  delight  in.  This  King 
feasts  in  the  neatherd's  cottage,  and  He  will  even  con- 
escend  to  turn  the  cakes.  '  I  will  sup  with  Him.'  We 
cannot  bring  anything  so  coarse,  so  poor,  so  unworthy, 
if  a  drop  or  two  of  love  has  been  sprinkled  over  it,  but 
that  it  will  be  well-pleasing  in  His  sight,  and  He  Hina- 
self  will  partake  thereof.  '  He  has  gone  to  be  a  guest 
with  a  man  that  is  a  sinner.' 

But  more  than  that,  where  He  is  welcomed  as  guest. 
He  assumes  the  place  of  host.  '  I  will  sup  with  him, 
and  he  vnth  Me.'  You  remember  how,  after  the  Resur- 
rection, when  the  two  disciples,  moved  to  hospitality, 
implored  the  unknown  Stranger  to  come  in  and 
partake  of  their  humble  fare,  He  yielded  to  their 
importunity,  and  when  they  were  in  the  guest- 
chamber,  took  His  place  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and 
blessed  the  bread  and  gave  it  to  them.   You  remember 


V.20]  CHRIST  AT  THE  DOOR  311 

how,  in  the  beginning  of  His  miracles,  He  manifested 
forth  His  glory  in  this,  that,  invited  as  a  common 
guest  to  the  rustic  wedding,  He  provided  the  failing 
wine.  And  so,  wherever  a  poor  man  opens  his  heart 
and  says,  '  Come  in,'  and  I  will  give  Thee  my  '  best,' 
Jesus  Christ  comes  in,  and  gives  the  man  His  best, 
that  the  man  may  render  it  back  to  Him.  He  owes 
nothing  to  any  man.  He  accepts  the  poorest  from  each, 
and  He  gives  the  richest  to  each.  He  is  Guest  and 
Host,  and  what  He  accepts  from  us  is  what  He  has  first 
given  to  us. 

The  promise  of  my  text  is  fulfilled  immediately 
when  the  door  of  the  heart  is  opened,  but  it  shadows 
and  prophesies  a  nobler  fulfilment  in  the  heavens. 
Here  and  now  Christ  and  we  may  sit  together,  but  the 
feast  will  be  like  the  Passover,  eaten  with  loins  girt 
and  staves  in  hand,  and  the  Red  Sea  and  wilderness 
waiting  to  be  trodden.  But  there  comes  a  more  per- 
fect form  of  the  communion,  which  finds  its  parallel 
in  that  wonderful  scene  when  the  weary  fishers,  all  of 
whose  success  had  depended  on  their  obedience  to  the 
Master's  direction,  discerned  at  last,  through  the  grey 
of  the  morning,  who  it  was  that  stood  upon  the  shore, 
and,  struggling  to  His  side,  saw  there  a  fire  of  coals, 
and  fish  laid  thereon,  and  bread,  to  which  they  were 
bidden  to  add  their  modest  contribution  in  the  fish  that 
they  had  caught ;  and  the  meal  being  thus  prepared 
partly  by  His  hand  and  partly  by  theirs,  ennobled  and 
filled  by  Him,  His  voice  says,  '  Come  and  dine.'  So, 
brethren,  Christ  at  the  last  will  bring  His  servants  to 
His  table  in  His  kingdom,  and  there  their  works  shall 
follow  them;  and  He  and  they  shall  sit  together  for 
ever,  and  for  ever  *  rejoice  in  the  fatness  of  Thy  house, 
even  of  Thy  holy  temple.' 


812  REVELATION  [cH.m. 

I  bpseech  you,  listen  not  to  my  poor  voice,  but  to  His 
that  speaks  through  it,  and  when  He  knocks  do  you 
open,  and  Christ  Himself  shall  come  in.  *  If  any  man 
love  Me  he  will  keep  My  commandments,  and  My 
Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come  and  make  Our 
abode  with  him.' 


VII.— THE  VICTOR'S  SOVEREIGNTY 

'  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  eit  with  Me  in  My  throne,  eyen  as  I 
also  overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father  in  His  throne.'— Rev.  ill.  21. 

The  Church  at  Laodicea  touched  the  lowest  point  of 
Christian  character.  It  had  no  heresies,  but  that  was 
not  because  it  clung  to  the  truth,  but  because  it  had 
not  life  enough  to  breed  even  them.  It  had  no  conspicu- 
ous vices,  like  some  of  the  other  communities.  But  it 
had  what  was  more  fatal  than  many  vices — a  low 
temperature  of  religious  life  and  feeling,  and  a  high 
notion  of  itself.  Put  these  two  things  together — they 
generally  go  together — and  you  get  the  most  fatal 
condition  for  a  Church.  It  is  the  condition  of  a  large 
part  of  the  so-called  *  Christian  world '  to-day,  as  that 
very  name  unconsciously  confesses ;  for  *  world '  is  the 
substantive,  and  'Christian'  only  the  adjective,  and 
there  is  a  great  deal  more  'world'  than  'Christian' 
in  many  so-called  '  Churches.' 

Such  a  Church  needed,  and  received,  the  sharpest 
rebuke.  A  severe  disease  requires  drastic  treatment. 
But  the  same  necessity  which  drew  forth  the  sharp 
rebuke  drew  forth  also  the  loftiest  of  the  promises.  If 
the  condition  of  Laodicea  was  so  bad,  the  struggle  to 
overcome  became  proportionately  greater,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  reward  the  larger.    The  least  worthy  may 


V.  21]    THE  VICTOR'S  SOVEREIGNTY      8ia 

rise  to  the  highest  position.  It  was  not  to  the  victors 
over  persecution  at  Smyrna,  or  over  heresies  at  Thya- 
tira,  nor  even  to  the  blameless  Church  of  Philadelphia, 
but  it  was  to  the  faithful  in  Laodicea,  who  had  kept 
the  fire  of  their  own  devotion  well  alight  amidst  the 
tepid  Christianity  round  them,  that  this  climax  of  all 
the  seven  promises  is  given. 

In  all  the  others  Jesus  Christ  stands  as  the  bestower 
of  the  gift.  Here  He  stands,  not  only  as  the  bestower, 
but  as  Himself  participating  in  that  which  He  bestows. 
The  words  beggar  all  exposition,  and  I  have  shrunk 
from  taking  them  as  my  text.  We  seem  to  see  in  them, 
as  if  looking  into  some  sun  with  dazzled  eyes,  radiant 
forms  moving  amidst  the  brightness,  and  in  the  midst 
of  them  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  man.  But  if  my 
words  only  dilute  and  weaken  this  great  promise,  they 
may  still  help  to  keep  it  before  your  own  minds  for  a 
few  moments.  So  I  ask  you  to  look  with  me  at  the 
two  great  things  that  are  bracketed  together  in  our 
text ;  only  I  venture  to  reverse  the  order  of  considera- 
tion, and  think  of — 

I.  The  Commander-in-Chiefs  conquest  and  royal  re- 
pose. 

•  I  also  overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father 
in  His  throne.'  It  seems  to  me  that,  wonderful  as  are 
all  the  words  of  my  text,  perhaps  the  most  wonderful 
of  them  all  are  those  by  which  the  two  halves  of 
the  promise  are  held  together — '  Even  as  I  also.*  The 
Captain  of  the  host  takes  His  place  in  the  ranks,  and, 
if  I  may  so  say,  shoulders  His  musket  like  the  poorest 
private.  Christ  sets  Himself  before  us  as  pattern  of 
the  struggle,  and  as  pledge  of  the  victory  and  reward. 
Now  let  me  say  a  word  about  each  of  the  two  halves  of 
this  great  thought  of  our  Lord's  identification  of  Him- 


314  REVELATION  [ch.iii. 

self  Tnth  us  in  our  fight,  and  identification  of  us  with 
Him  in  His  victory. 

As  to  the  former,  I  would  desire  to  emphasise,  with 
all  the  strength  that  I  can,  the  point  of  view  from 
which  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  in  these  final  words  from 
the  heavens,  directed  to  all  the  Churches,  looks  hack 
upon  His  earthly  career,  and  bids  us  think  of  it  as  a 
true  conflict.  You  remember  how,  in  the  sanctities  of 
the  upper  room,  and  ere  yet  the  supreme  moment  of 
the  crucifixion  had  come,  our  Lord  said,  when  within 
a  day  of  the  Cross  and  an  hour  of  Gethsemane,  '  I  have 
overcome  the  world.'  This  is  an  echo  of  that  never-to- 
be-forgotten  utterance  that  the  aged  Apostle  had 
heard  when  leaning  on  his  Master's  bosom  in  the 
seclusion  and  silence  of  that  sacred  upper  chamber. 
Only  here  our  Lord,  looking  back  upon  the  victory, 
gathers  it  all  up  into  one  as  a  past  thing,  and  says,  '  I 
overcame,'  in  those  old  days  long  ago. 

Brethren,  the  orthodox  Christian  is  tempted  to  think 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  reduce  His  con- 
flict on  earth  to  a  mere  sham  fight.  Let  no  supposed 
theological  necessities  induce  you  to  weaken  down  in 
your  thoughts  of  Him  what  He  Himself  has  told  us — 
that  He,  too,  struggled,  and  that  He,  too,  overcame. 
That  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  where  the  necessities 
of  the  flesh  and  the  desires  of  the  spirit  were  utilised 
by  the  Tempter  as  weapons  with  which  His  unmoved 
obedience  and  submission  were  assailed,  was  repeated 
over  and  over  again  all  through  His  earthly  life.  We 
believe — at  least  I  believe — that  Jesus  Christ  was  in 
nature  sinless,  and  that  temptation  found  nothing  in 
Him  on  which  it  could  lay  hold,  no  fuel  or  combustible 
material  to  which  it  could  set  light.  But,  notwith- 
standing, inasmuch  as  He  became  partaker  of  flesh  and 


V.21]    THE  VICTOR'S  SOVEREIGNTY      315 

blood,  and  entered  into  the  limitations  of  humanity, 
His  sinlessness  did  not  involve  His  incapacity  for  being 
tempted,  nor  did  it  involve  that  His  righteousness  was 
not  assailed,  nor  His  submission  often  tried.  "We  be- 
lieve —  or  at  least  I  believe  —  that  He  '  did  no  sin, 
neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth.'  But  I  also 
reverently  listen  to  Him  unveiling,  so  far  as  may  need 
to  be  unveiled,  the  depths  of  His  own  nature  and 
experience,  and  I  rejoice  to  think  that  He  fought  the 
good  fight,  and  Himself  was  a  soldier  in  the  army 
of  which  He  is  the  General.  He  is  the  Captain,  the 
Leader,  of  the  long  procession  of  heroes  of  the  faith ; 
and  He  is  the  *  perf ecter '  of  it,  inasmuch  as  His  own 
faith  was  complete  and  unbroken. 

But  I  may  remind  you,  too,  that  from  this  great 
word  of  condescending  self-revelation  and  identification, 
we  may  well  learn  what  a  victorious  life  really  is.  *  I 
overcame ' ;  but  from  the  world's  point  of  view  He  was 
utterly  beaten.  He  did  not  gather  in  many  who  would 
listen  to  Him  or  care  for  His  words.  He  was  mis- 
understood, rejected ;  lived  a  life  of  poverty ;  died 
when  a  young  man,  a  violent  death;  was  hunted  by 
all  the  Church  dignitaries  of  His  generation  as  a 
blasphemer,  spit  upon  by  soldiers,  and  execrated  after 
His  death.  And  that  is  victory,  is  it?  Well,  then, 
we  shall  have  to  revise  our  estimates  of  what  is  a 
conquering  career.  If  He,  the  pauper-martyr,  if  He, 
the  misunderstood  enthusiast,  if  He  conquered,  then 
some  of  our  notions  of  a  victorious  life  are  very  far 
astray. 

Nor  need  I  say  a  word,  I  suppose,  about  the  com- 
pleteness, as  well  as  the  reality,  of  that  victory  of  His. 
From  heaven  He  claims  in  this  great  word  just  what 
He  claimed  on  earth,  over  and  over  again,  when  He 


316  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

fronted  His  enemies  with,  •  Which  of  you  convince th 
Me  of  sin  ? '  and  when  He  declared  in  the  sanctities 
of  His  confidence  with  His  friends,  'I  do  always  the 
things  that  please  Him.'  The  rest  of  us  partially  over- 
come, and  partially  are  defeated.  He  alone  bears  His 
shield  out  of  the  conflict  undinted  and  unstained.  To 
do  the  will  of  God,  to  dwell  in  continual  communion 
with  the  Father,  never  to  be  hindered  by  anything  that 
the  world  can  present  or  my  sins  can  suggest,  whether 
of  delightsome  or  dreadful,  from  doing  the  will  of  the 
Father  in  heaven  from  the  heart — that  is  victory,  and 
all  else  is  defeat.  And  that  is  what  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation,  and  only  He,  did. 

Turn  for  a  moment  now  to  the  other  side  of  our 
Lord's  gracious  identification  of  Himself  with  us. 
'Even  as  I  also  am  set  down  with  My  Father  in  His 
throne.'  That  points  back,  as  the  Greek  original  shows 
even  more  distinctly,  to  the  historical  fact  of  the 
Ascension.  It  recalls  the  great  words  by  which,  with 
full  consciousness  of  what  He  was  doing,  Jesus  Christ 
sealed  His  own  death-warrant  in  the  presence  of  the 
Sanhedrim  when  He  said :  '  Henceforth  ye  shall  see 
the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power.'  It 
carries  us  still  further  back  to  the  psalm  which  our 
Lord  Himself  quoted,  and  thereby  stopped  the  mouths 
of  Scribes  and  Pharisees :  *  The  Lord  said  unto  My  Lord, 
sit  Thou  at  My  right  hand  till  I  make  Thine  enemies 
Thy  footstool.'  He  laid  His  hand  upon  that  great 
promise,  and  claimed  that  it  was  to  be  fulfilled  in  His 
case.  And  here,  stooping  from  amidst  the  blaze  of  the 
central  royalty  of  the  Universe,  He  confirms  all  that 
He  had  said  before,  and  declares  that  He  shares  the 
Throne  of  God. 

Now,  of  course,  the  words  are  intensely  figurative. 


V.21]    THE  VICTOR'S  SOVEREIGNTY     817 

and  have  to  be  translated  as  best  we  can,  even  though 
it  may  seem  to  weaken  and  dilute  them,  into  less 
concrete  and  sensible  forms  than  the  figurative  repre- 
sentation. But  I  think  we  shall  not  be  mistaken  if  we 
assert  that,  whatever  lies  in  this  great  statement  far 
beyond  our  conception  in  the  present,  there  lie  in  it 
three  things — repose,  royalty,  communion  of  the  most 
intimate  kind  with  the  Father. 

There  is  repose.  You  remember  how  the  first  martyr 
saw  the  opened  heavens  and  the  ascended  Christ,  in 
that  very  hall,  probably,  in  which  Christ  had  said, 
•Henceforth  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  power.'  But  Stephen,  as  he  declared, 
with  rapt  face  smitten  by  the  light  into  the  likeness  of 
an  angel's,  saw  Him  standing  at  the  right  hand.  We 
have  to  combine  these  two  images,  incongruous  as  they 
are  in  prose,  literally,  before  we  reach  the  conception 
of  the  essential  characteristic  of  that  royal  rest  of 
Christ's.  For  it  is  a  repose  that  is  full  of  activity. 
'  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,'  said  He  on  earth,  *  and 
I  work.'  And  that  is  true  with  regard  to  His  unseen 
and  heavenly  life.  The  verses  which  are  appended  to 
the  close  of  Mark's  gospel  draw  a  picture  for  us — 'They 
went  everywhere  preaching  the  Word ' :  He  sat  at 
*  the  right  hand  of  God.'  The  two  halves  do  not  fuse 
together.  The  Commander  is  in  repose ;  the  soldiers 
are  bearing  the  brunt  of  the  fight.  Yes!  but  then 
there  comes  the  word  which  links  the  two  halves 
together.  'They  went  everywhere  preaching,  the  Lord 
also  working  with  them.' 

Christ's  repose  indicates,  not  merely  the  cessation 
from,  but  much  rather  the  completion  of.  His  work  on 
earth,  which  culminated  on  the  Cross  ;  which  work  on 
earth  is  the  basis  of  the  still  mightier  work  which  He 


818  REVELATION  [ch.  hi. 

is  doing'  in  the  heavens.  So  the  Apostle  Paul  sets  up  a 
great  ladder,  so  to  speak,  which  our  faith  climbs  by 
successive  stages,  when  he  says,  'He  that  died — yea, 
rather  that  is  risen  again — who  is  even  at  the  right 
hand  of  God— who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us.' 
His  repose  is  full  of  beneficent  activity  for  all  that 
love  Him. 

Again,  there  is  set  forth  royalty,  participation  in 
Divine  dominion.  The  highly  metaphorical  language 
of  our  text,  and  of  parallel  verses  elsewhere,  presents 
this  truth  in  two  forms.  Sometimes  we  read  of  *  sit- 
ting at  the  right  hand  of  God ' ;  sometimes,  as  here,  we 
read  of  'sitting  on  the  throne.'  The  'right  hand  of 
God'  is  everywhere.  It  is  not  a  local  designation. 
*  The  right  hand  of  the  Lord '  is  the  instrument  of  His 
omnipotence,  and  to  speak  of  Christ  as  sitting  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  is  simply  to  cast  into  symbolical 
words  the  great  thought  that  He  wields  the  forces  of 
Divinity.  When  we  read  of  Him  as  enthroned  on  the 
Throne  of  God,  we  have,  in  like  manner,  to  translate 
the  figure  into  this  overwhelming  and  yet  most  certain 
truth,  that  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  is  exalted  to  supreme, 
universal  dominion,  and  that  all  the  forces  of  omni- 
potent Divinity  rest  in  the  hands  that  still  bear,  for 
faith,  the  prints  of  the  nails. 

But  again  that  session  of  Christ  with  the  Father 
suggests  the  thought,  about  which  it  becomes  us  not 
to  speak,  of  a  communion  with  the  Father — deep,  in- 
timate, unbroken,  beyond  all  that  we  can  conceive  or 
speak.  We  listen  to  Him  when  He  says,  '  Glorify  Thou 
Me  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the 
world  was.'  We  bow  before  the  thought  that  what  He 
asked  in  that  prayer  was  the  lifting  of  one  of  our- 
selves, the  humanity  of  Jesus,  into  this  inseparable 


V.  21]    THE  VICTOR'S  SOVEREIGNTY      319 

unity  with  the  very  glory  of  God.  And  then  wo  Cvitch 
the  wondrous  words  :  *  Even  as  I  also.' 

II.  That  brings  me  to  the  second  of  the  thoughts 
here,  which  may  be  more  briefly  disposed  of  after  the 
preceding  exposition,  and  that  is,  the  private  soldier's 
share  in  the  Captain's  victory  and  rest.  '  I  will  grant 
to  sit  with  Me  in  My  throne,  even  as  I  also.' 

Now  with  regard  to  the  former  of  these,  our  share 
in  Christ's  triumph  and  conquest,  I  only  wish  to  say 
one  thing,  and  it  is  this^I  thankfully  recognise  that 
to  many  who  do  not  share  with  me  in  what  I  believe 
to  be  the  teaching  of  Scripture,  viz.,  the  belief  that 
Christ  was  more  than  example,  their  partial  belief,  as 
I  think  it,  in  Him  as  the  realised  ideal,  the  living 
Pattern  of  how  men  ought  to  live,  has  given 
strength  for  far  nobler  and  purer  life  than  could 
otherwise  have  been  reached.  But,  brethren,  it  seems 
to  me  that  we  want  a  great  deal  more  than  a  pattern, 
a  great  deal  closer  and  more  intimate  union  with 
the  Conqueror  than  the  mere  setting  forth  of  the 
possibility  of  a  perfect  life  as  realised  in  Him,  ere  we 
can  share  in  His  victory.  What  does  it  matter  to  me, 
after  all,  except  for  stimulus  and  for  rebuke,  that 
Jesus  Christ  should  have  lived  the  life?  Nothing. 
But  when  we  can  link  the  words  in  the  upper  room,  '  I 
have  overcome,'  and  the  words  from  heaven,  *  Even  as 
I  also  overcame,'  with  the  same  Apostle's  words  in  his 
epistle,  'This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world, 
even  our  faith,'  then  we  share  in  the  Captain's  victory 
in  an  altogether  different  manner  from  that  which 
they  do  who  can  see  in  Him  only  a  pattern  that  stimu- 
lates and  inspires.  For  if  we  put  our  trust  in  that 
Saviour,  then  the  very  life  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and  which  conquered  the  world  in  Him,  will  pass  into 


«20  REVELATION  [ch.  iii. 

us ;  and  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  will 
make  us  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  that 
loved  us. 

And  then  the  victory  being  secured,  because  Christ 
lives  in  us  and  makes  us  victorious,  our  participation 
in  His  throne  is  secure  likewise. 

There  shall  be  repose,  the  cessation  of  effort,  the  end 
of  toil.  There  shall  be  no  more  aching  heads,  strained 
muscles,  exhausted  brains,  weary  hearts,  dragging 
feet.  There  will  be  no  more  need  for  resistance.  The 
helmet  will  be  antiquated,  the  laurel  crown  will  take 
its  place.  The  heavy  armour,  that  rusted  the  garment 
over  which  it  was  braced,  will  be  laid  aside,  and  the 
trailing  robes,  that  will  contract  no  stain  from  the 
golden  pavements,  will  be  the  attire  of  the  redeemed. 
We  have  all  had  work  enough,  and  weariness  enough, 
and  battles  enough,  and  beatings  enough,  to  make  us 
thankful  for  the  thought  that  we  shall  sit  on  the 
throne. 

But  if  it  is  a  rest  like  His,  and  if  it  is  to  be  the  rest 
of  royalty,  there  will  be  plenty  of  work  in  it ;  work  of 
the  kind  that  fits  us  and  is  blessed.  I  know  not  what 
new  elevation,  or  what  sort  of  dominion  will  be 
granted  to  those  who,  instead  of  the  faithfulness  of 
the  steward,  are  called  upon  to  exercise  the  activity  of 
the  Lord  over  ten  cities.  I  know  not,  and  I  care  not; 
it  is  enough  to  know  that  we  shall  sit  on  His  throne. 

But  do  not  let  us  forget  the  last  of  the  thoughts : 
'  They  shall  sit  with  Me.'  Ah !  there  you  touch  the 
centre — 'To  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far 
better';  'Absent  from  the  body;  present  with  the 
Lord.'  We  know  not  how.  The  lips  are  locked  that 
might,  perhaps,  have  spoken;  only  this  we  know,  that, 
not  as  a  drop  of  water  is  absorbed  into  the  ocean  and 


IT.  21]     THE  VICTOR'S  SOVEREIGNTY     321 

loses  its  individuality,  shall  we  be  united  to  Christ. 
There  will  always  be  the  two,  or  there  would  be  no 
blessedness  in  the  two  being  one ;  but  as  close  as  is 
compatible  with  the  sense  of  being  myself,  and  of  His 
being  Himself,  will  be  our  fellowship  with  Him.  *  He 
that  is  joined  to  the  Lord  is  one  spirit.' 

Brethren,  this  generation  would  be  a  great  deal  the 
better  for  thinking  more  often  of  the  promises  and 
threatenings  of  Scripture  with  regard  to  the  future. 
I  believe  that  no  small  portion  of  the  lukewarmness 
of  the  modern  Laodicea  is  owing  to  the  comparative 
neglect  into  which,  in  these  days,  the  Christian  teach- 
ings on  that  subject  have  fallen.  I  have  tried  in  these 
sermons  on  these  seven  promises  to  bring  them  at 
least  before  your  thoughts  and  hearts.  And  I  beseech 
you  that  you  would,  more  than  you  have  done,  *  have 
respect  unto  the  recompense  of  reward,'  and  let  that 
future  blessedness  enter  as  a  subsidiary  motive  into 
your  Christian  life. 

We  may  gather  all  these  promises  together,  and 
even  then  we  have  to  say,  '  the  half  hath  not  been  told 
us.'  'It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be.' 
Symbols  and  negations,  and  these  alone,  teach  us  the 
little  that  we  know  about  that  future ;  and  when  we 
try  to  expand  and  concatenate  these,  I  suppose  that 
our  conceptions  correspond  to  the  reality  about  as 
closely  as  would  the  dreams  of  a  chrysalis  as  to  what 
it  would  be  when  it  was  a  butterfly.  But  certainty  and 
clearness  are  not  necessarily  united.  *  It  doth  not 
yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but  we  know  that  when 
He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him.'  Take  '  even  as 
I  also'  for  the  key  that  unlocks  all  the  mysteries  of 
that  glorious  future.  '  It  is  enough  for  the  servant 
that  he  be  as  his  Master.' 

X 


THE  SEVEN  EYES  OF  THE  SLAIN  LAMB 

*. .  .A  Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain,  having.  •  •  seven  eyes,  which  are  the  seren 
Spirits  of  God  sent  forth  into  aU  the  earth.'— Rev.  v.  6. 

John  received  a  double  commission,  to  write  the  things 
which  are  and  the  things  which  shall  be.  The  things 
which  are  signify,  I  suppose,  the  unseen  realities  which 
flashed  upon  the  inward  eye  of  the  solitary  seer  for  a 
moment  in  symbol  when  the  door  was  opened  in 
Heaven.  All  that  is  here  is  seeming  and  illusion ;  the 
only  substantial  existences  lie  within  the  veil.  And  of 
all  those  '  things  which  are,'  in  timeless,  eternal  being, 
this  vision  of  the  throned  '  Lamb,  as  it  had  been  slain/ 
is  the  centre. 

Between  the  Great  White  Throne  and  the  outer  ring 
of  worshippers,  representing  in  the  'living  creatures' 
the  crown  and  glory  of  creatural  life,  and  in  the  elders, 
the  crown  and  glory  of  redeemed  humanity,  stands  the 
Lamb  slain,  which  is  the  symbolical  way  of  declaring 
that  for  ever  and  ever,  through  Christ  and  for  the  sake 
of  His  sacrifice,  there  pass  to  the  universe  all  Divine 
gifts,  and  there  rise  from  the  universe  all  thankfulness 
and  praise.  His  manhood  is  perpetual,  the  influence  of 
His  sacrifice  in  the  Divine  administration  and  govern- 
ment never  ceases. 

The  attributes  with  which  this  verse  clothes  that 
slain  Lamb  are  incongruous  ;  but,  perhaps,  by  reason  of 
their  very  incongruity  all  the  more  striking  and  signi- 
ficant. The  '  seven  horns '  are  the  familiar  emblem  of 
perfect  power ;  the  '  seven  eyes '  are  interpreted  by  the 
seer  himself  to  express  the  fulness  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 

The  eye  seems  a  singular  symbol  for  the  Spirit,  but 
it  may  be  used  as  suggesting  the  swiftest  and  subtlest 

888 


V.6]  THE  SEVEN  EYES  823 

way  in  which  the  influences  of  a  human  spirit  pass  out 
into  the  external  universe.  At  all  events,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  reason  for  the  selection  of  the  emblem, 
the  interpretation  of  it  lies  here,  in  the  words  of  our 
text  itself.  The  teaching  of  this  emblem,  then,  is :  '  He, 
being  by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having 
received  the  promise  of  the  Father,  sheds  forth  this.' 
The  whole  fulness  of  spiritual  Divine  power  is  in  the 
hand  of  Christ  to  impart  to  the  world. 

I.  The  '  slain  Lamb '  is  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  the 
Spirit.  He  'hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God'  in  the 
simplest  sense  of  all,  that  the  manhood  of  our  Brother 
who  died  on  the  Cross  for  us,  lifted  up  to  the  right 
hand  of  God,  is  there  invested  and  glorified  with  every 
fulness  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  with  all  the  mysteries 
of  the  life  of  God.  Whatsoever  there  is,  in  Deity,  of 
spirit  and  power ;  whatsoever  of  swift  flashing  energy; 
whatsoever  of  gentleness  and  grace;  whatsoever  of 
holiness  and  splendour;  all  inheres  in  the  Man  Christ 
Jesus;  unto  whom  even  in  His  earthly  lowliness  and 
humiliation  the  Spirit  was  not  given  by  measure,  but 
unto  whom  in  the  loftiness  of  His  heavenly  life  that 
Spirit  is  given  in  yet  more  wondrous  fashion  than  in 
His  humiliation.  For  I  suppose  that  the  exaltation 
with  which  Christ  is  exalted  is  not  only  a  change  of 
position,  but  in  some  sense  His  manhood  is  progressive ; 
and  now  in  the  Heavens  is  yet  fuller  of  the  indwell- 
ing Spirit  than  it  was  here  upon  earth. 

But  it  is  not  as  the  recipient,  but  as  the  bestower  of 
the  Spirit,  that  He  comes  before  us  in  the  great  words 
of  my  text.  All  that  He  has  of  God,  He  has  that  He 
may  give.  Whatsoever  is  His  is  ours ;  we  share  in  His 
fulness  and  we  possess  His  grace.  He  gives  His  ovyn 
life,  and  that  is  the  very  central  idea  of  Christianity. 


324  REVELATION  [ch.v. 

There  are  very  many  imperfect  views  of  Christ's 
work  afloat  in  the  world.  The  lowest  of  them,  the 
most  imperfect,  so  imperfect  and  fragmentary  as 
scarcely  to  be  worth  calling  Christianity  at  all,  is  the 
view  which  recognises  Him  as  being  merely  Example, 
Guide,  Teacher.  High  above  that  there  comes  the 
view  which  is  common  amongst  orthodox  people  of  the 
more  superficial  type — the  view  which  is,  I  am  afraid, 
still  too  common  amongst  us — which  regards  the  whole 
work  of  Jesus  Christ  as  terminated  upon  the  Cross.  It 
thinks  of  Him  as  being  something  infinitely  more  than 
Teacher  and  Guide  and  Example,  but  it  stops  at  the 
thought  of  His  great  reconciling  death  as  being  the 
completion  of  His  work,  and  hears  Him  say  from  the 
Cross,  '  It  is  finished,'  with  a  faith  which,  however 
genuine,  cannot  but  be  considered  as  imperfect  unless 
it  is  completed  with  the  remembrance  that  it  was  but 
one  volume  of  His  work  that  was  finished  when  He 
died  upon  the  Cross.  His  death  was  really  a  transition 
to  a  form  of  work  which  if  not  loftier  was  at  all  events 
other  than  the  work  which  was  completed  upon  Cal- 
vary. His  earthly  life  finished  His  perfect  obedience 
as  Pattern  and  as  Son ;  His  death  on  the  Cross  finished 
His  mighty  work  of  self-surrender  and  sacrifice,  which 
is  propitiation  and  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world.  His  life  on  earth  and  His  death  on  the  Cross 
taken  together  finished  His  great  work  of  revealing 
the  Father  in  so  far  as  that  revelation  depended  upon 
outward,  objective  facts.  But  His  life  on  earth  and 
His  death  on  the  Cross  did  not  even  begin  the  work, 
but  only  laid  the  foundation  for  it,  of  communicating 
to  men  the  life  which  was  in  Himself.  He  lived  that 
He  might  complete  obedience  and  manifest  the  Father. 
He  died  that  He  might  *  put  away  sin '  and  reveal  the 


y.«]  THE  SEVEN  EYES  325 

Father  still  more  fully.  And  now,  exalted  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  He  works  on  through  the  ages  in  that 
which  is  the  fruit  of  His  Cross  and  the  crown  of  His 
sacrifice,  the  communication  to  men,  moment  by 
moment,  of  His  own  perfect  life,  that  they  too  may 
live  for  ever  and  be  like  Him. 

He  died  that  we  might  not  die ;  He  lives  that  the  life 
which  we  live  in  the  flesh  may  be  His  life  and  not  ours. 
We  may  not  draw  comparisons  between  the  greatness 
of  the  various  departments  of  our  Master's  work,  but 
we  can  say  that  His  earthly  life  and  His  death  of 
shame  are  the  foundation  of  the  work  which  He  does 
to-day.  And  so,  dear  brethren,  whilst  nineteen  cen- 
turies ago  His  triumphant  words, '  It  is  finished,'  rang 
out  the  knell  of  sin's  dominion,  and  the  first  hope  for 
the  world's  emancipation,  another  voice,  far  ahead  still 
in  the  centuries,  waits  to  be  spoken ;  and  not  until  the 
world  has  been  filled  with  the  glory  of  His  Cross  and 
the  power  of  His  life  shall  it  be  proclaimed :  *  It  is 
done  I ' 

The  interspace  between  these  two  is  filled  with  the 
activity  of  that  slain  Lamb  who,  by  His  death,  has 
become  the  Lord  of  the  Spirit ;  and  through  His  blood 
is  able  to  communicate  to  all  men  the  life  of  His  own 
soul.  The  Lord  of  the  Spirit  is  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain. 

II.  Then  let  me  ask  you  to  look,  secondly,  at  the 
representation  here  given  of  the  infinite  variety  of 
gifts  which  Christ  bestows. 

Throughout  this  Book  of  the  Revelation  we  find  this 
remarkable  expression,  in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
not  spoken  of  as  in  His  personal  unity,  but  as  in  seven- 
fold variety.  So  at  the  beginning  of  the  letter  we  find 
the  salutation,  '  Grace  and  peace  from  Him  which  is. 


326  REVELATION  [ch.  v. 

and  was,  and  which  is  to  come ;  and  from  the  seven 
Spirits  which  are  before  His  Throne.'  And  again  we 
read,  in  one  of  the  letters  to  the  churches:  'These 
things  saith  He  that  hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God,  and 
the  seven  stars ' ;  the  correspondence  being  marked 
between  the  number  of  each.  And  again  we  read  in 
the  earlier  part  of  this  same  vision,  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  that  before  the  throne  there  were  seven 
torches  flaming,  '  which  are  the  seven  Spirits  of  God.' 
And  so,  again,  in  my  text,  we  read,  '  seven  Spirits  of 
God  sent  forth  into  all  the  earth.* 

Now  it  is  obvious  that  there  is  not  any  question 
here  of  the  personality  and  unity  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
which  is  sufficiently  recognised  in  other  parts  of  the 
Apocalypse,  such  as  'the  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say: 
"  Come  !  "  '  and  the  like ;  but  that  the  thing  before  the 
Evangelist's  mind  is  the  variety  of  the  operations  and 
activities  of  that  one  Spirit. 

And  the  number  '  seven,'  of  course,  at  once  suggests 
the  idea  of  perfection  and  completeness. 

So  that  the  thought  emerges  of  the  endless,  bound- 
less, manifoldness,  and  wonderful  diversity  of  the 
operations  of  this  great  life-spirit  that  streams  from 
Jesus  Christ. 

Think  of  the  number  of  designations  by  which  that 
Spirit  is  described  in  the  New  Testament.  In  regard 
to  all  that  belongs  to  intellectual  life,  He  is  'the 
Spirit  of  wisdom'  and  of  'illumination  in  the  know- 
ledge of  Christ,'  He  is  '  the  Spirit  of  Truth.'  In  regard 
to  all  that  belongs  to  the  spiritual  life.  He  is  *  the  Spirit 
of  holiness,'  the  '  Spirit  of  liberty ' ;  the  Spirit  of  self- 
control,  or  as  rendered  in  our  Bible,  *of  a  sound  mind*; 
the  *  Spirit  of  love.'  In  regard  to  all  that  belongs  to 
the  practical   life,  He  is  'the  Spirit   of  counsel  and 


▼.6]  THE  SEVEN  EYES  827 

of  might,'  the  '  Spirit  of  power.'  In  regard  to  all  that 
belongs  to  the  religious  life,  He  is  'the  Spirit  of 
Adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba !  Father ! ' ;  the  'Spirit 
of  grace  and  of  supplication,'  the  'Spirit  of  life.'  So 
over  the  whole  round  of  man's  capacity  and  nature,  all 
his  intellectual,  moral,  practical,  and  religious  being, 
there  are  gifts  which  fit  each  side  and  each  part 
of  it. 

Think  of  the  variety  of  the  symbols  under  which  He 
is  presented :  *  the  oil,'  with  its  soft,  gentle  flow ;  '  the 
fire,'  with  its  swift  transmuting,  purifying  energy ;  the 
water,  refreshing,  fertilising,  cleansing;  the  breath, 
quickening,  vitalising,  purifying  the  blood ;  the  wind, 
gentle  as  the  sigh  of  an  infant,  loud  and  mighty  as  a 
hurricane,  sometimes  scarcely  lifting  the  leaves  upon 
the  tender  spring  herbage,  sometimes  laying  the  city 
low  in  a  low  place.  It  is  various  in  manifestation, 
graduating  through  all  degrees,  applying  to  every  side 
of  human  nature,  capable  of  all  functions  that  our 
weakness  requires,  helping  our  infirmities,  making 
intercession  for  us  and  in  us,  with  unutterable  groan- 
ings,  sealing  and  confirming  our  possession  of  His 
grace ;  searching  the  deep  things  of  God  and  revealing 
them  to  us  ;  guiding  into  all  truth,  freeing  us  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death.  There  are  diversities  of  opera- 
tion, but  the  same  Spirit.  It  is  protean,  and  takes 
every  shape  that  our  necessities  require. 

Think  of  all  men's  diverse  weaknesses,  miseries,  sins, 
cravings — every  one  of  them  an  open  door  through 
which  God's  grace  may  come;  every  one  of  them  a 
form  provided  into  which  the  rich  molten  ore  of  this 
golden  Spirit  may  flow.  Whatsoever  a  man  needs, 
that  he  will  find  in  the  infinite  variety  of  the  spiritual 
help  and  strength  which  the  Lamb  slain  is  ready  to 


828  REVELATION  [ch.  v. 

give.  It  is  like  the  old  fable  of  the  manna,  which  the 
Babbis  tell  us  tasted  upon  each  lip  precisely  what  each 
man  chose.  So  this  nourishment  from  above  becomes 
to  every  man  what  each  man  requires.  "Water  will  take 
the  shape  of  any  vessel  into  which  you  choose  to  pour 
it ;  the  Spirit  of  God  assumes  the  form  that  is  imposed 
upon  it  by  our  weaknesses  and  needs.  And  if  you 
want  to  know  the  exhaustless  variety  of  the  seven 
Spirits  which  the  Lamb  gives,  find  out  the  multiplicity 
and  measure,  the  manif  oldness  and  the  depth,  of  man's 
necessities,  of  weakness,  of  sorrow,  and  sin,  and  you 
will  know  how  much  the  Spirit  of  God  is  able  to  bestow 
and  still  remain  full  and  unexhausted. 

III.  Still  further,  my  text  suggests  the  unbroken  con- 
tinuity of  the  gifts  which  the  slain  Lamb  has  to  give. 

The  language  of  the  original,  for  any  of  you  that  can 
consult  it,  will  show  you  that  the  word  *  sent '  might 
be  rendered  'being  sent,'  expressive  of  a  continual 
impartation. 

Ah !  God's  Spirit  is  not  given  once  in  a  way  and  then 
stops.  It  is  given,  not  by  fits  and  starts.  People  talk 
about '  revivals,'  as  if  there  were  times  when  the  Spirit 
of  God  came  down  more  abundantly  than  at  other 
times  upon  the  world,  or  upon  churches,  or  upon  indi- 
viduals. It  is  not  so.  There  are  variations  in  our 
receptiveness ;  there  are  no  variations  in  its  steady 
efflux.  Does  the  sun  shine  at  different  rates,  are  its 
beams  cut  off  sometimes,  or  poured  out  with  less  energy, 
or  is  it  only  the  position  of  the  earth  that  makes  the 
difference  between  the  summer  and  the  winter,  the  days 
and  the  nights,  whilst  the  great  central  orb  is  raying  out 
at  the  same  rate  all  through  the  murky  darkness,  all 
through  the  frosty  days?  And  so  the  gifts  of  Jesus 
Christ  pour  out  from  Him  at  a  uniform  continuous 


V.6]  THE  SEVEN  EYES  829 

rate,  with  no  breaks  in  the  golden  beams,  with  no 
pauses  in  the  continual  flow.  Pentecost  is  far  back, 
but  the  fire  that  was  kindled  then  has  not  died  down 
into  grey  ashes.  It  is  long  since  that  stream  began  to 
flow,  but  it  is  not  yet  shrunken  in  its  banks.  For  ever 
and  for  ever,  with  unbroken  continuity,  whether  men 
receive  or  whether  they  forbear.  He  shines  on,  com- 
municating Himself  and  pouring  out  the  Spirit  of 
grace,  ay !  even  into  a  non-receiving  world  !  How  much 
sunshine  seems  to  be  lost,  how  much  of  that  Spirit's 
influence  seems  lost,  and  yet  it  pours  on  for  ever. 

Men  talk  about  Christianity  as  being  efPete.  People 
to-day  look  back  upon  the  earlier  ages,  and  say: 
'  Where  is  the  Lord  God  of  Elijah  ? '  The  earlier  ages 
had  nothing  that  you  and  I  have  not,  and  Christianity 
will  not  die  out,  and  God's  Church  will  not  die  out, 
until  the  sun  that  endureth  for  ever  is  shorn  of  its 
beams  and  forgets  to  shine.  The  seven  Spirits  are 
streaming  out  as  they  were  at  the  beginning,  and  as — 
blessed  be  God ! — they  shall  do  to  the  end. 

lY.  And,  lastly,  my  text  suggests  a  universal  diffu- 
sion of  these  gifts.  *  Seven  Spirits  of  God  sent  forth 
into  all  the  earth.'  The  words  are  a  quotation  from  a 
remarkable  prophecy  in  the  book  of  Zechariah,  which 
speaks  about  the  'seven  eyes  of  God,'  running — 

*To  and  fro  over  all  the  earth.' 

There  are  no  limitations  of  these  gifts  to  any  one 
race  or  nation  as  there  were  in  the  old  times,  nor  any 
limitations  either  to  a  democracy.  '  On  My  servants 
and  on  My  handmaidens  will  I  pour  out  of  My  Spirit.' 
In  olden  days  the  mountain-tops  were  touched  with 
the  rays,  and  all  the  lowly  valleys  lay  deep  in  the 
shadow  and  the  darkness.    Now  the  risen  sunshine 


330  REVELATION  [ch.v. 

pours  down  into  the  deepest  clefts,  and  no  heart  so 
poor,  so  illiterate,  so  ignorant  but  that  it  may  receive 
the  full  sunshine  of  that  Spirit. 

Of  course,  in  the  very  widest  of  all  senses  the  words 
are  true  of  the  universal  diffusion  of  spiritual  gifts 
from  Christ ;  for  all  the  light  with  which  men  see  is 
His  light ;  and  all  the  eyes  with  which  they  have  ever 
looked  at  truth,  or  beauty,  or  goodness,  come  from 
Him  who  is  *  the  Master-light  of  all  our  seeing.'  And 
poet,  and  painter,  and  thinker,  and  teacher,  and  phil- 
anthropist, and  every  man  that  has  helped  his  fellows 
or  has  had  any  glimpse  of  any  angle  or  bit  of  the 
Divine  perfection,  has  seen  because  the  eye  of  the  class 
or  order.  Christianity  as  the  true  Lord  has  been  in 
some  measure  granted  to  him,  and  '  the  inspiration  of 
the  Almighty  has  given  him  understanding.' 

But  the  universal  diffusion  of  spiritual  gifts  of  this 
sort  is  not  what  is  meant  in  my  text.  It  means  the  gifts 
of  a  higher  religious  character.  And  I  need  not  remind 
you  of  how  over  broad  lands  that  were  heathen  when 
John  in  his  rocky  Patmos  got  this  vision,  there  has 
now  dawned  the  glory  of  Christ  and  the  knowledge  of 
His  name.  Think  of  all  the  treasures  of  the  literature 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  Latin  and  African  and 
Teutonic  lands  that  have  come  since  the  day  when 
this  chapter  was  written.  Think  of  what  Britain  was 
then  and  of  what  it  is  to-day.  Remember  the  heroisms, 
holinesses,  illuminations  that  have  shone  over  these 
then  barbarous  lands  since  that  time  ;  and  understand 
how  it  has  all  come  because  from  the  Lamb  by  the 
Throne  there  has  been  sent  out  over  all  the  earth  the 
Spirit  that  is  wisdom  and  holiness  and  life. 

And  think  how  steadily  down  through  layers  of 
society  that  were  regarded  as  outcast  and  contempt- 


v.6j       PALM-BEARING  MULTITUDE      831 

ible  in  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  Church,  there 
has  trickled  and  filtered  the  knowledge  of  Himself  and 
of  His  grace;  and  how  amongst  the  poor  and  the 
humble  and  the  outcast,  amongst  the  profligate  and 
the  sinful,  there  have  sprung  up  flowers  of  holiness 
and  beauty  all  undreamed  of  before ;  and  we  shall 
understand  how  all  classes  in  all  lands  may  receive  a 
portion  of  the  sevenfold  Spirit. 

Every  Christian  man  and  woman  is  inspired,  not  to 
be  a  teacher  of  infallible  truth,  but  inspired  in  the  true 
and  deep  sense  that  in  them  dwells  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ.  '  If  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  he  is  none  of 
His.'  All  of  us,  weak,  sinful  as  we  are,  ignorant  and 
bewildered  often,  may  possess  that  Divine  life  to  live 
in  our  hearts. 

Only,  dear  brethren,  remember  it  is  the  slain  Lamb 
that  gives  the  Spirit.  And  unless  we  are  looking  to 
that  Lamb  slain  as  our  hope  and  confidence,  we  shall 
not  receive  it.  A  maimed  Christianity  that  has  a 
Christ,  but  no  slain  Lamb,  has  little  of  His  Spirit ;  but 
if  you  trust  to  His  Sacrifice,  and  rest  your  whole  hopes 
on  His  Cross,  then  there  will  come  into  your  hearts  His 
own  mighty  grace,  and  '  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  will  make  you  free  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death.' 


THE  PALM-BEARING  MULTITUDE 

*.  .  .  Lo,  a  great  multitude  .  .  .  stood  before  the  throne,  and  before  the  Lamb, 
clothed  with  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their  hands.'— Rev.  tH.  9. 

The  Seer  is  about  to  disclose  the  floods  of  misery  which 
are  to  fall  upon  the  earth  at  the  sound  of  the  seven 
trumpets,  like  avalanches  set  loose  by  a  noise.  But 
before  the  crash  of  their  descent  comes  there  is  a  lull. 


332  REVELATION  [oh.  vii. 

He  sees  angels  holding  back  the  winds,  like  dogs  in  a 
leash,  lest  they  should  blow,  and  all  destructive  agencies 
are  suspended.  In  the  pause  before  the  storm  he  sees 
two  visions :  one,  that  of  the  sealing  of  the  servants  of 
God,  the  pledge  that,  amidst  the  world-wide  calamities, 
they  shall  be  secure ;  and  one,  this  vision  of  my  text, 
the  assurance  that  beyond  the  storms  there  waits  a 
calm  region  of  life  and  glory.  The  vision  is  meant  to 
brace  all  generations  for  their  trials,  great  or  small,  to 
draw  faith  and  love  upwards  and  forwards,  to  calm 
sorrow,  to  diminish  the  magnitude  of  death  and  the 
pain  of  parting,  and  to  breed  in  us  humble  desires  that, 
when  our  time  comes,  we  too  may  go  to  join  that 
great  multitude. 

It  can  never  be  inappropriate  to  look  with  the  eyes 
of  the  Seer  on  that  jubilant  crowd.  So  I  turn  to  these 
words  and  deal  with  them  in  the  plainest  possible 
fashion,  just  taking  each  clause  as  it  lies,  though,  for 
reasons  which  will  appear,  modifying  the  order  in 
which  we  look  at  them.  I  think  that,  taken  together, 
they  tell  us  all  that  we  can  or  need  know  about  that 
future. 

I.  Note  the  palm-bearing  multitude. 

Now  the  palm,  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  was 
a  token  of  victory.  That  is  usually  taken  to  be  the 
meaning  of  the  emblem  here,  as  it  was  taken  in  the 
well-known  hymn — 

'  More  than  conquerors  at  last.* 

But  it  has  been  well  pointed  out  that  there  is  no  trace 
of  such  a  use  of  the  palm  in  Jewish  practice,  and  that 
all  the  emblems  of  this  Book  of  the  Revelation  move 
within  the  circle  of  Jewish  ideas.  Therefore,  appro- 
priate as  the  idea  of  victory  may  be,  it  is  not,  as  I  take 


V.9]      PALM-BEARING  MULTITUDE      338 

it,  the  one  that  is  primarily  suggested  here.  Where, 
then,  shall  we  look  for  the  meaning  of  the  symbol  ? 

Now  there  was  in  Jewish  practice  a  very  significant 
use  of  the  palm-branches,  for  it  was  the  prescription 
of  the  ritual  law  that  they  should  be  employed  in  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles,  when  the  people  were  bidden  to 
take  palm-branches  and  •  rejoice  before  the  Lord  seven 
days.'  It  is  that  distinctly  Jewish  use  of  the  palm- 
branch  that  is  brought  before  our  minds  here,  and  not 
the  heathen  one  of  mere  conquest. 

So  then,  if  we  desire  to  get  the  whole  significance 
and  force  of  this  emblem  of  the  multitude  with  the 
palms  in  their  hands,  we  have  to  ask  what  was  the 
significance  of  that  Jewish  festival.  Like  all  other 
Jewish  feasts,  it  was  originally  a  Nature-festival, 
applying  to  a  season  of  the  year,  and  it  afterwards 
came  to  have  associated  with  it  the  remembrance  of 
something  in  the  history  of  the  nation  which  it  com- 
memorated. That  double  aspect,  the  natural  and  the 
historical,  are  both  to  be  kept  in  view.  Let  us  take 
the  eldest  one  first.  The  palm-bearing  multitude  before 
the  Throne  suggests  to  us  the  thought  of  rejoicing 
reapers  at  the  close  of  the  harvest.  The  year's  work  is 
done,  the  sowing  days  are  over,  the  reaping  days  have 
come.  '  They  that  gather  it  shall  eat  it  in  the  courts  of 
the  Lord.'  And  so  the  metaphor  of  my  text  opens  out 
into  that  great  thought  that  the  present  and  the  future 
are  closely  continuous,  and  that  the  latter  is  the  time 
for  realising,  in  one's  own  experience,  the  results  of  the 
life  that  we  have  lived  here.  To-day  is  the  time  of 
sowing ;  the  multitude  with  the  palms  in  their  hands 
are  the  reapers.  Brother!  what  are  you  sowing? 
Will  it  be  for  you  a  glad  day  of  festival  when  you 
have  to  reap  what  you  have  sown  ?    Are  you  scattering 


334  REVELATION  [ch.  vii. 

poisoned  seed?  Are  you  sowing  weeds,  or  are  you 
sowing  good  fruit  that  shall  be  found  after  many  days 
unto  praise  and  honour  and  glory?  Look  at  your  life 
here  as  being  but  setting  in  motion  a  whole  series  of 
causes  of  which  you  are  going  to  have  the  effects 
j)unctually  dealt  out  to  you  yonder  in  the  time  to 
come.  That  great  multitude  reaped  what  they  had 
sown,  and  rejoiced  in  the  reaping.  Shall  I?  We  are 
like  operators  in  a  telegraph  office,  touching  keys  here 
which  make  impressions  upon  ribbons  in  a  land  beyond 
the  sea,  and  when  we  get  there  we  shall  have  to  read 
what  we  have  written  here.  How  will  you  like  it, 
when  the  ribbon  is  taken  out  of  the  machine  and 
spread  before  you,  and  you  have  to  go  over  it  syllable  by 
syllable  and  translate  all  the  dots  and  dashes  into  what 
they  mean  ?  It  will  be  a  feast  or  a  day  of  sadness. 
But,  festival  or  no,  there  stands  plain  and  irrefragable 
the  fact  that  '  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap,'  and  he  will  not  only  have  to  reap  it,  but  he 
will  have  to  eat  it,  and  be  filled  with  the  fruit  of  his 
own  doings.    That  is  the  first  thought. 

Turn  to  the  other  one.  That  palm-bearing  multitude 
keeping  their  Feast  of  Tabernacles  reminds  us  of  the 
other  aspect  of  the  festival  in  its  original  intention, 
which  was  the  commemoration  of  all  that  God  had 
done  for  the  people  as  they  passed  through  the  wilder- 
ness, and  the  rejoicing,  in  their  settled  abode,  over 
'  the  way  by  which  the  Lord  their  God  had  led  them,' 
and  over  the  rest  to  which  He  had  led  them.  So  the 
other  idea  comes  out  that  they  who  have  passed  into 
that  great  Presence  look  back  on  the  darkness  and  the 
dreariness,  on  the  struggles  and  the  change,  on  the 
drought  and  the  desert,  on  the  foes  and  the  fears,  and 
out  of  them  all  find  occasions  for  rejoicing  and  reasons 


Y.9]      PALM-BEARING  MULTITUDE      835 

for  thankfulness.  There  can  be  no  personal  identity 
without  memory,  and  the  memory  of  sorrows  changes 
into  joy  when  we  come  to  see  the  whole  meaning  and 
trend  of  the  sorrow.  The  desert  was  dreary,  solitary, 
dry,  and  parched  as  they  passed  through  it.  But  like 
some  grim  mountain-range  seen  in  the  transfiguring 
light  of  sunrise,  and  from  the  far  distance,  all  grimness 
is  changed  into  beauty,  and  the  long  dreary  stretch 
looks,  when  beheld  from  afar,  one  unbroken  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Divine  love  and  presence.  What  was  grim 
rock  and  cold  ice  when  we  were  near  it  is  clothed  with 
the  violets  and  the  purples  that  remoteness  brings, 
and  there  shines  down  upon  it  the  illuminating  and 
interpreting  light  of  the  accomplished  purpose  of  God. 
So  the  festival  is  the  feast  of  inheriting  consequences, 
and  the  feast  of  remembering  the  past. 

There  is  one  other  aspect  of  this  metaphor  which  I 
may  just  mention  in  a  sentence.  Later  days  in  Judaism 
added  other  features  to  the  original  appointments  of 
the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  and  amongst  them  there  was 
one  which  our  Lord  Himself  used  as  the  occasion  of 
setting  forth  one  aspect  of  His  work.  '  On  the  last  day, 
that  great  day  of  the  feast,'  the  priests  went  down  from 
the  Temple,  and  filled  their  golden  vases  at  the  foun- 
tain, brought  back  the  water,  and  poured  it  forth  in 
the  courts  of  the  Temple,  chanting  the  ancient  song 
from  the  prophet,  '  With  joy  shall  ye  draw  water  out 
of  the  wells  of  salvation.'  And  our  Lord  in  His  earthly 
life  used  this  last  day  of  the  feast  and  its  ceremonial 
as  the  point  of  attachment  for  His  revelation  of  Himself, 
as  He  who  gave  to  men  the  true  living  water.  In  like 
manner,  the  expansion  of  my  text,  which  occurs  in  the 
subsequent  verses,  refers,  as  it  would  seem,  to  the 
festival,  and  to  our  Lord's  own  use  of  it,  when  we  read 


386  REVELATION  [ch.vh. 

that  the  ♦  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  Throne 
shall  be  their  Shepherd,  and  shall  lead  them  to  the 
fountains  of  living  waters.' 

So  the  emblem  of  the  feast  brings  to  our  mind,  not 
only  the  thought  of  retribution  and  of  repose,  but  also 
the  thought  of  the  abundant  communication  of  all 
supplies  for  all  the  desires  and  thirsts  of  the  dependent 
and  seeking  soul.  Whatsoever  human  nature  can  need 
there,  it  receives  in  its  fulness  from  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Rabbis  used  to  say  that  he  who  had  not  seen  the  joy 
of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  did  not  know  what  joy 
meant ;  and  I  would  say  that  until  we,  too,  stand  there, 
with  the  palms  in  our  hands,  we  shall  not  know  of  how 
deep,  fervent,  calm,  perpetual  a  gladness  the  human 
heart  is  capable. 

II.  Note  their  place  and  attitude. 

They  stand  before  the  Throne,  and  before  the  Lamb. 
Now  it  would  take  me  too  far  away  from  my  present 
purpose  to  do  more  than  point,  in  a  sentence,  to  that 
remarkable  and  tremendous  juxtaposition  of  the 
'  Throne '  and  the  '  Lamb,'  which  Lamb  is  the  crucified 
Christ.  What  did  the  man  that  ventured  upon  that 
form  of  speech,  bracketing  together  the  'Throne'  of 
the  Divine  Majesty  and  the  slain  •  Lamb '  who  is  Christ, 
think  about  Christ  that  he  should  sever  Him  from  all 
the  multitude  of  men,  and  unite  Him  with  the  solitary 
God  ?    I  only  ask.    I  leave  you  to  answer. 

But  I  turn  to  the  two  points — 'before  the  Throne 
and  the  Lamb,'  and  '  standing ' ;  and  these  two  suggest, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  the  two  thoughts  which,  though  we 
cannot  do  much  to  fill  them  out,  are  yet  all-sufficient 
for  illumination,  for  courage,  and  for  hope.  These  two 
are  the  thought  of  nearness  and  the  thought  of  service. 
*  Before  the  Throne  and  the  Lamb '  is  but  a  picturesque 


V.  9]      PALM-BEARING  MULTITUDE      337 

way  of  saying  '  to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  which 
is  far  better.'  I  do  not  enter  upon  any  attempt  to 
expound  the  manner  of  such  nearness.  All  that  I  say 
is  that  it  is  a  poor  affair  if  we  are  to  let  flesh  and  sense 
interpret  for  us  what  is  meant  by  'near'  and  'far.' 
For  even  here,  and  whilst  we  are  entangled  with  this 
corporeal  existence  and  our  dependence  upon  the  con- 
ditions of  time  and  space,  we  know  that  there  is 
nearness  mediated  by  sympathy  and  love  which  is 
independent  of,  which  survives  and  disregards,  ex- 
ternal separation  in  space.  Every  loving  heart  knows 
that  where  the  treasure  is,  there  the  heart  is,  and 
where  the  heart  is,  there  the  man  is.  And  the  very 
same  thing  that  knits  us  together,  though  oceans  wide 
between  us  roll,  in  its  highest  form  will  knit  the  souls 
that  love  Jesus  Christ  to  Him,  wherever  in  space  they 
and  He  may  be.  Here  we  have  five  senses,  five 
windows,  five  gates.  If  our  ears  were  different  we 
should  hear  sounds,  shrill  and  deep,  which  now  are 
silence  to  us.  If  our  eyes  were  different  we  should  see 
rays  at  both  ends  of  the  spectrum  which  now  are 
invisible.  The  body  hides  as  much  as  it  reveals,  and 
we  may  humbly  believe  that  when  the  perfect  spirit 
is  clothed  with  its  perfect  organ,  the  spiritual  body — 
that  is  to  say,  the  body  that  answers  to  all  the  needs 
of  the  spirit,  and  is  its  fit  instrument,  then  many  of 
those  melodies  which  now  pass  by  us  unheard  will  fill 
our  senses  with  sweetness,  and  many  of  these  flashing 
lustres  which  now  we  cannot  gather  into  visual  im- 
pressions will  then  blaze  before  us  in  the  perfect  light. 
We  shall  be  near  Him,  and  to  be  with  Christ,  however 
it  is  mediated  (and  we  cannot  tell  how),  is  all  that  you 
need,  for  peace,  for  nobleness,  for  blessedness,  for 
immortality.    Brethren !  to  have  Christ  with  me  here 

Y 


338  REVELATION  [ch.vii. 

is  my  strength ;  to  bo  with  Christ  yonder  is  my  blessed- 
ness. They  are  'before  the  Throne  of  God  and  the 
Lamb.'  I  do  not  believe  that  we  know  much  beyond 
that,  and  I  am  sure  that  we  need  nothing  beyond  it,  if 
we  rightly  understand  all  that  it  means. 

But  I  said  there  was  another  idea  here,  and  that  is 
implied  by  the  words,  they  •  stood  before  the  Throne,' 
and  is  further  drawn  out  in  the  expansion  of  my  text 
which  follows  it  as  interpretation:  'Therefore  are 
they  before  the  Throne  of  God,  and  serve  Him  day  and 
night  in  His  Temple.'  What  the  nature  of  the  service 
may  be  it  boots  not  to  inquire,  only  let  us  remember 
that  the  caricature  of  the  Christian  heaven  which  has 
often  been  flung  at  Christian  people  as  a  taunt,  viz., 
that  it  is  an  eternity  of  idleness  and  psalm-singing,  has 
no  foundation  in  Scripture,  because  the  New  Testament 
conception  unites  the  two  thoughts  of  being  with 
Christ  and  of  service  for  Christ.  Remember,  for 
instance,  the  parable  of  the  pounds  and  the  talents,  in 
which  the  great  law  is  laid  down.  'Thou  hast  been 
faithful  over  a  few  things ;  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over 
many  things,'  and  mark  how  here  '  these  .  .  .  that 
came  out  of  great  tribulation'  are  not  only  in  His 
presence,  but  active  in  His  service.  We  have  the  same 
blending  still  more  definitely  set  forth  in  the  last 
chapter  of  this  book,  where  we  read  of  *  those  who 
serve  Him,  and  see  His  face';  where  the  two  ideas  of 
the  life  of  contemplation  and  rapt  vision,  and  of  the 
life  of  active  service  and  joyful  employment  are  welded 
together  as  being  not  only  not  incompatible,  but  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  each  other's  completeness. 

But  remember  that  if  there  is  to  be  service  yonder, 
here  is  the  exercising  ground,  where  we  are  to  cultivate 
the  capacities  and  acquire  the  habitudes  which  there 


V.9]      PALM-BEARING  MULTITUDE      889 

will  find  ampler  scope  and  larger  field.  I  do  not  know 
what  we  are  here  iu  this  world  for  at  all,  unless  it  is  to 
apprentice  us  for  heaven.  I  do  not  know  that  there 
is  anything  that  a  man  has  to  do  in  this  life  which  is 
worth  doing  unless  it  be  as  a  training  for  doing  some- 
thing yonder  that  shall  more  entirely  correspond  with 
his  capacities.  So  what  kind  of  work  are  you  doing, 
friend  ?  Is  it  the  sort  of  work  that  you  will  be  able  to 
carry  on  when  you  pass  beyond  all  the  trivialities  of 
this  life  ?  I  beseech  you,  remember  this,  that  life  on 
earth  is  a  bewilderment  and  an  enigma  for  which 
there  is  no  solution,  a  long  piece  of  irony,  unless 
beyond  the  grave  there  lie  fields  for  nobler  work  for 
which  we  are  being  trained  here.  And  I  pray  you  see 
to  it  that  your  life  here  on  earth  is  such  as  to  prepare 
you  for  the  service,  day  and  night,  of  the  heavens. 
How  can  I  drive  that  home  to  your  hearts  and  con- 
sciences ?    I  cannot ;  you  must  do  it  for  yourselves. 

III.  Lastly,  note  their  dress. 

*  Clothed  with  white  robes ' — the  robe  is,  of  course,  in 
all  languages,  the  character  in  which,  as  the  result  of 
his  deeds,  a  man  drapes  himself,  that  of  him  which  is 
visible  to  the  world,  the  '  habit '  of  his  spirit,  as  we  say 
(and  the  word  '  habit '  means  both  custom  and  costume). 
'White'  is,  of  course,  the  heavenly  colour;  'white 
thrones,' '  white  horses '  are  in  this  book,  and  the  white 
is  not  dead  but  lustrous,  like  our  Lord's  garments  on 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  such  white  as  sunshine 
smiting  a  snowfield  makes.  So,  then,  the  dress,  the 
habit  of  the  spirits  is  of  lustrous  purity,  or  glory,  to 
put  it  all  into  one  word.  But  more  important  than 
that  is  this  question:  How  came  they  by  such  robes? 
The  expansion  of  our  text,  to  which  I  have  already 
referred  more  than  once,  and  which  immediately  fol- 


340  REVELATION  [oh.  vii. 

lows,  answers  the  question.  *  They  washed  their  robes, 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.'  *  They 
washed';  then  there  is   something    for  them  to  do. 

•  The  blood  of  the  Lamb '  was  the  means  of  cleansing ; 
then  cleansing  was  not  the  result  of  their  own  effort. 
The  cleansing  is  not  the  mere  forgiveness,  but  includes 
also  the  making  of  the  character,  pure,  white,  lustrous. 
And  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  does  that.  For  Christ  by 
His  death  has  brought  to  us  forgiveness,  and  Christ  by 
His  imparted  life  brings  to  each  of  us,  if  we  will,  the 
cleansing  which  shall  purify  us  altogether.  Only  we 
have  something  to  do.  We  cannot  indeed  cleanse  our- 
selves. There  is  no  detergent  in  any  soap  factory  in 
the  world  that  will  take  the  stains  out  of  your  charac- 
ter, or  that  will  take  away  the  guilt  of  the  past.  But 
Jesus  Christ  by  His  death  brings  forgiveness,  and  by 
His  life  imparted  to  us,  will  change  the  set  of  a 
character,  and    make    us    gradually   pure.      He    has 

*  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood.'  We  have 
to  wash  our  garments,  and  make  them  *  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.'  He  has  brought  the  means ;  we 
have  to  employ  them.  If  we  do,  if  we  not  only  trust 
Him  for  pardon,  but  accept  Him  for  purifyng,  and 
day  by  day  honestly  endeavour  to  secure  greater  and 
greater  whiteness  of  garments,  our  labour  will  not  be 
in  vain.  If,  and  only  if,  we  do  that,  and  see  stain  after 
stain  gradually  fade  away  from  the  garment,  under 
our  hands,  we  may  humbly  hope  that  when  we  die 
there  will  be  one  more  added  to  the  palm-bearing, 
white-robed  multitude  who  stand  before  the  Throne 
and  before  the  Lamb.  'Blessed  are  they  that  wash 
their  robes  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  Tree  of 
Life,'  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gate  into  the  City. 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  THE  LAMB 

'  And  I  saw  aa  it  were  a  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  Are :  and  them  that  had  gotten 
the  victory  over  the  beast,  and  over  his  image,  .  .  .  and  over  the  number  of  his 
name,  stand  on  the  sea  of  glass,  having  the  harps  of  God.  3.  And  they  sing  the 
song  of  Moses  the  servant  of  God,  and  the  song  of  the  Lamb.'— Rev.  xv.  2,  3. 

The  form  of  this  vision  is  moulded  partly  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  Seer,  and  partly  by  reminiscences 
of  Old  Testament  history.  As  to  the  former,  it  can 
scarcely  be  an  accident  that  the  Book  of  the  Revelation 
abounds  with  allusions  to  the  sea.  We  are  never  far 
from  the  music  of  its  waves,  which  broke  around  the 
rocky  Patmos  where  it  was  written.  And  the  '  sea  of 
glass  mingled  with  fire '  is  but  a  photograph  of  what 
John  must  have  seen  on  many  a  still  morning,  when 
the  sunrise  came  blushing  over  the  calm  surface ;  or  on 
many  an  evening  when  the  wind  dropped  at  sundown, 
and  the  sunset  glow  dyed  the  watery  plain  with  a 
fading  splendour. — Nor  is  the  allusion  to  Old  Testament 
history  less  obvious.  We  cannot  but  recognise  the 
reproduction,  with  modifications,  of  that  scene  when 
Moses  and  his  ransomed  people  looked  upon  the  ocean 
beneath  which  their  oppressors  lay,  and  lifted  up  their 
glad  thanksgivings.  So  here,  by  anticipation,  in  the 
solemn  pause  before  the  judgment  goes  forth,  there  are 
represented  the  spirits  that  have  been  made  wise  by 
conquest,  as  gathered  on  the  bank  of  that  steadfast 
ocean,  lifting  up  as  of  old  a  hymn  of  triumphant 
thankfulness  over  destructive  judgments,  and  blending 
the  song  of  Moses  and  of  the  Lamb,  in  testimony  of  the 
unity  of  spirit  which  runs  through  all  the  manifesta- 
tions of  God's  character  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 
Ever  His  judgments  are  right;   ever  the  purpose  of 

841 


342  REVELATION  [ch.xv. 

His  most  terrible  things  is  that  men  may  know  Him, 
and  may  love  Him;  and  ever  they  who  see  deepest 
into  the  mysteries,  and  understand  most  truly  the 
realities  of  the  universe  will  have  praise  springing  to 
their  lips  for  all  that  God  hath  done. 

I.  Notice  the  Triumphant  Choir. 

*  I  saw  them  that  had  gotten  the  victory  over  the 
beast  and  over  his  image,  and  over  the  number  of  his 
name.'  Now  I  am  not  going  to  plunge  into  Apocalyp- 
tic discussions.  It  is  no  part  of  my  business  now  either 
to  ask  or  answer  the  question  as  to  whether  this  Beast 
of  the  Revelation  is  a  person  or  a  tendency.  I  do  not 
care,  for  my  present  purpose,  whether,  supposing  it  to 
be  a  person,  an  embodiment  of  certain  tendencies,  it  is 
a  person  in  the  past  or  in  the  future ;  whether  it  was  a 
veiled  designation  of  the  Emperor  Nero,  or  whether  it 
is  a  prophecy  of  some  yet  unborn  human  embodiment 
of  transcendent  wickedness.  The  question  that  I  would 
ask  is  rather  this,— Whoever  the  beast  is,  what  makes 
him  a  beast  ?  And  if  we  will  think  about  that,  we  may 
get  some  good  out  of  it.  What  is  the  bestial  element 
in  him,  whoever  he  be  ?  And  the  answer  is  not  far  to 
find — Godless  selfishness,  that  is  '  the  mark  of  the  beast.' 
Wherever  a  human  nature  is  self-centred,  God-forget- 
ting, and,  therefore,  God- opposing  (for  whoever  for- 
gets God  defies  Him),  that  nature  has  gone  down  below 
humanit3%  and  has  touched  the  lower  level  of  the 
brutes.  Men  are  so  made  as  that  they  must  either  rise 
to  the  level  of  God  or  certainly  go  down  to  that  of 
the  animal.  And  wherever  you  see  men  living  by 
their  own  fancies,  for  their  own  pleasure,  in  f orgetf ul- 
ness  and  neglect  of  the  sweet  and  mystic  bonds  that 
should  knit  them  to  God,  there  you  see  •  the  image  of 
the  beast  and  the  number  of  his  name.* 


vs.  2, 3]  THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  843 

But  besides  that  godless  selfishness,  we  may  point  to 
simple  animalism  as  literally  the  mark  of  the  beast. 
He  who  lives  not  by  conscience  and  by  faith,  but  by 
fleshly  inclination  and  sense,  lowers  himself  to  the  level 
of  the  instinctive  brute-life,  and  beneath  it,  because  he 
refuses  to  obey  faculties  which  they  do  not  possess, 
and  what  is  nature  in  them  is  degradation  in  us.  Look 
at  the  unblushing  sensuality  which  marks  many  're- 
spectable people'  nowadays.  Look  at  the  foul'flesh- 
liness  of  much  of  popular  art  and  poetry.  Look  at  the 
way  in  which  pure  animal  passion,  the  lust  of  the  flesh, 
and  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  love  of  good  things  to 
eat,  and  plenty  to  drink,  is  swaying  and  destroying 
men  and  women  by  the  thousand  among  us.  Look  at 
the  temptations  that  lie  along  every  street  in  our  great 
cities,  for  every  young  man,  after  dusk.  Look  at  the 
thin  veneer  of  culture  over  the  ugliest  lust.  Scratch 
the  gentleman,  and  you  find  the  satyr.  Is  it  much  of 
an  exaggeration,  in  view  of  the  facts  of  English  life 
to-day,  to  say  that  all  the  world  wonders  after  and 
worships  this  beast? 

Further,  notice  that  to  escape  from  the  power  of  the 
beast  it  is  needful  to  fight  one's  way  out.  The  language 
of  my  text  is  remarkably  significant.  This  Apocalyptic 
writer  does  not  mind  about  grammar  or  smoothness 
so  long  as  he  can  express  his  ideas ;  and  he  uses  a  form 
of  speech  here  that  makes  the  hair  of  grammatical 
purists  stand  on  end,  because  it  vigorously  expresses  his 
thought.  He  calls  these  triumphant  choristers  'con- 
querors out  of  the  beast,'  which  implies  that  victory 
over  him  is  an  escape  from  a  dominion  in  which  the 
conquerors,  before  their  victory,  were  held.  They  have 
fought  their  way,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  land  of  bondage, 
and,  like  revolted  slaves,  have  won  their  liberty,  and 


844  REVELATION  [ch.  xv. 

marched  forth  triumphant.  The  allusion  to  Israel's 
exodus  is  probable.  '  Egypt  was  glad  when  they  de- 
parted.' So  the  bondsmen  of  this  new  Pharaoh  recover 
freedom  by  conflict,  and  the  fruit  of  their  victory  is 
entire  escape  from  the  tyrant. 

That  victory  is  possible.  The  Apocalypse  shows  us 
that  there  are  two  opposing  Powers — this  said  '  beast ' 
on  the  one  side,  and  *  the  Lamb '  on  the  other.  In  the 
Seer's  vision  these  two  divide  the  world  between  them. 
That  is  to  say,  Jesus  Christ  has  conquered  the  bestial 
tendencies  of  our  nature,  the  selfish  godlessness  which 
is  apt  to  cast  its  spells  and  weave  its  chains  over  us  all. 
The  Warrior-Lamb,  singular  and  incongruous  as  the 
combination  sounds,  is  the  Victor.  He  conquers  because 
He  is  the  Lamb  of  sacrifice ;  He  conquers  because  He 
is  the  Lamb  of  innocence ;  He  conquers  because  He  is 
the  Lamb  of  meekness,  the  gentle  and,  therefore,  the 
all-victorious.  By  Christ  we  conquer.  Through  faith, 
which  lays  hold  on  His  power  and  victory,  we  too  may 
conquer.  '  This  is  the  victory  which  overcometh  the 
world,  even  our  faith.' 

Young  men  and  women,  may  I  make  my  appeal 
specially  to  you  ?  Do  not  let  yourselves  be  led  away 
captives,  like  cattle  to  the  shambles,  by  the  fascinations 
and  seductions  of  this  poor,  fleeting  present.  Keep  your 
heel  on  the  neck  of  the  animal  that  is  within  you ;  take 
care  of  that  selfish  godlessness  into  which  we  all  are 
tempted  to  fall.  Listen  to  the  trumpet-call  that  ought 
to  stir  your  hearts,  and  summons  you  to  freedom  and 
to  victory  through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  And  by 
humbly  clasping  Him  as  your  Sacrifice,  your  Leader, 
and  your  Power,  enrol  yourselves  amongst  those  who, 
in  His  own  good  time,  shall  come  victorious  out  from 
the  beast  and  from  his  image. 


vs.  2, 3]  THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  845 

II.  Still  further,  notice  the  position  of  this  victorious 
chorus. 

'I  saw  as  it  were  a  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire; 
and  they  stand  on  the  sea  of  glass.'  Of  course  the  pro- 
priety of  the  image,  as  well  as  the  force  of  the  original 
language,  suggests  at  once  that  by  *  on  the  sea  of  glass ' 
here,  we  must  understand,  on  the  firm  bank  by  its  side. 
As  Moses  and  the  ransomed  hosts  stood  on  the  shore 
of  the  Red  Sea,  so  these  conquerors  are  represented  as 
standing  on  the  safe  beach,  and  looking  out  upon  this 
sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire,  which,  calm,  crystal, 
clear,  stable,  and  yet  shot  through  and  through  with 
the  red  lines  of  retributive  judgment,  sleeps  above  the 
buried  oppressors. 

Observe  that  besides  its  picturesque  appropriateness 
and  its  historical  allusion,  this  sea  of  glass  has  a  dis- 
tinct symbolical  meaning.  "We  find  it  appearing  also 
in  the  great  vision  in  the  fourth  chapter,  where  the 
Seer  beholds  the  normal  and  ideal  order  of  the  universe, 
which  is — the  central  throne,  the '  Lamb  that  was  slain ' 
in  the  interspace  between  the  Throne  and  the  creatures 
as  mediator ;  and  round  about,  the  four  living  beings, 
who  represent  the  fulness  of  creation,  and  the  four- 
and-twenty  elders,  who  represent  the  Church  in  the 
Old  and  the  New  Covenants  as  one  whole.  Then  fol- 
lows, *  before  the  Throne  was  a  sea  of  glass,'  which 
cannot  be  any  part  of  the  material  creation,  and 
seems  to  have  but  one  explanation,  and  that  is  that 
it  means  the  aggregate  of  the  Divine  dealings.  *  Thy 
judgments  are  a  mighty  deep.'  •  Oh !  the  depth  of 
the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and  of  the  knowledge 
of  God ;  how  unsearchable  are  His  judgments  and 
His  ways  past  finding  out.'  Such  a  signification  fits 
precisely  our  present  passage,  for  the  sea  here  repre- 


346  REVELATION  [ch.  xv. 

sents  that  beneath  which  the  tyrant  lies  buried  for 
evermore. 

That  great  ocean  of  the  judgment  of  God  is  crystal- 
line—clear though  deep.  Does  it  seem  so  to  us  ?  Ah  I 
we  stand  before  the  mystery  of  God's  dealings,  often 
bewildered,  and  not  seldom  reluctant  to  submit.  The 
perplexity  arising  from  their  obscurity  is  often  almost 
torture,  and  sometimes  leads  men  into  Atheism,  or 
something  like  it.  And  yet  here  is  the  assurance  that 
that  sea  is  crystal  clear,  and  that  if  we  cannot  look  to 
its  lowest  depths,  that  is  not  because  there  is  any  mud 
or  foulness  there,  but  partly  because  the  light  from 
above  fails  before  it  reaches  the  abysses,  and  partly 
because  our  eyes  are  uneducated  to  search  its  depths. 
In  itself  it  is  transparent,  and  it  rises  and  falls  without 
•  mire  or  dirt,'  like  the  blue  Mediterranean  on  the  marble 
cliffs  of  the  Italian  coast.  If  it  is  clear  as  far  as  the  eye 
can  see,  let  us  trust  that  beyond  the  reach  of  the  eye 
the  clearness  is  the  same. 

And  it  is  a  crystal  ocean  as  being  calm.  They  who 
stand  there  have  gotten  the  victory  and  bear  the  image 
of  the  Master.  By  reason  of  their  conquest,  and  by 
reason  of  their  sympathy  with  Him  they  see  that  what 
to  us,  tossing  upon  its  surface,  appears  such  a  troubled 
and  tempestuous  ocean,  as  calm  and  still.  As  from 
some  height,  looked  down  upon,  the  ocean  seems  a 
watery  plain,  and  all  the  agitation  of  the  billows  has 
subsided  into  a  gentle  ripple  on  the  surface,  so  to  them 
looking  down  upon  the  sea  that  brought  them  thither, 
it  is  quiet — and  their  vision,  not  ours,  is  the  true  one. 

It  is  a  '  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire.'  Divine  acts 
of  retribution  as  it  were  flash  through  it,  if  I  may  so 
say,  like  those  streaks  of  red  that  are  seen  in  Venice 
glass,  or  like  some  ocean  smitten  upon  the  one  side  of 


vs.  2,3]  THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  847 

every  wave  by  a  fiery  sunlight,  while  the  other  side  of 
each  is  dark.  So  through  that  great  depth  of  God's 
dealings  there  flashes  the  fire  of  retribution.  They 
who  have  conquered  the  animal,  the  godless  self,  see 
into  the  meaning  and  the  mercifulness  of  God's  dealings 
with  the  world  ;  and  we  here,  in  the  measure  in  which 
we  have  become  victors  over  the  rude  animalism  and 
the  more  subtle  selfishness  that  tend  to  rule  us  all,  and 
in  the  measure  in  which  we  bear  the  image  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  therefore  have  come  into  sympathy  with 
Him,  may  come  to  discern  with  some  clearer  under- 
standing, and  to  trust  with  more  unfaltering  faith,  the 
righteousness  and  the  mercy  of  all  that  God  shall  do. 

III.  Lastly,  notice  the  occasion  of  the  song,  and  the 
song  itself. 

'  They  sing  the  song  of  Moses  and  of  the  Lamb.'  The 
Song  of  Moses  was  a  song  of  triumph  over  destructive 
judgment ;  the  Song  of  the  Lamb,  says  the  text,  is  set 
on  the  same  key.  The  one  broad,  general  lesson  to  be 
drawn  from  this,  is  one  on  which  I  have  no  time  to 
touch,  viz.,  the  essential  unity,  in  spite  of  all  superficial 
diversities,  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  Old  Covenant 
by  law  and  miracle  and  retributive  acts,  and  the  reve- 
lation of  God  in  the  New  Covenant  by  the  Cross  and 
Passion  of  Jesus  Christ.  Men  pit  the  Old  Testament 
against  the  New ;  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  against 
the  God  of  the  New.  They  sometimes  tell  us  that 
there  is  antagonism.  Modern  teachers  are  wanting  us 
to  deny  that  the  Old  is  the  foreshadowing  of  the  New, 
and  the  New  the  fulfilment  of  the  Old.  My  text  asserts, 
in  opposition  to  all  such  errors,  the  fruitful  principle 
of  the  fundamental  unity  of  the  two ;  and  bids  us  find 
in  the  one  the  blossom  and  in  the  other  the  fruit,  and 
declares  that  the  God  who  brought  the  waters  of  the 


348  REVELATION  [oh.  xv. 

ocean  over  the  oppressors  is  the  God  that  has  mercy 
upon  all,  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  dying  Son. 

And  there  is  another  principle  here,  upon  which  I 
need  not  do  more  than  touch,  for  I  have  already  antici- 
pated much  that  might  have  been  said  about  it,  and 
that  is  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  retributive  acts 
of  God's  destructive  dealings  in  this  world,  and  the 
highest  conception  of  His  love  and  mercy  which  the 
gospel  brings  us.  '  When  the  wicked  perish,'  says  one 
of  the  old  proverbs,  'there  is  shouting.'  And  so  there 
ought  to  be.  When  some  hoary  oppression  that  has 
been  deceiving  mankind  for  centuries,  with  its  instru- 
ments and  accomplices,  is  swept  off  the  face  of  the 
earth,  the  more  men  have  entered  into  the  meaning  of 
Jesus  Christ's  mission  and  work,  and  the  more  they 
feel  the  pitying  indignation  which  they  ought  to  feel 
at  seeing  men  led  away  by  evil,  and  made  miserable  by 
oppression,  the  more  they  will  rejoice.  God's  dealings 
are  meant  to  manifest  His  character,  and  that  in  order 
that  all  men  may  know  and  love  Him.  We  may,  there- 
fore, be  sure,  and  keep  firm  hold  of  the  confidence,  that 
whatever  He  doeth,  however  the  methods  may  seem 
to  vary,  comes  from  one  unalterable  and  fixed  motive, 
and  leads  to  one  unalterable  and  certain  end.  The 
motive  is  His  own  love ;  the  end  the  glory  of  His  Name, 
in  the  love  and  knowledge  of  men  whose  life  and 
blessedness  depend  on  their  knowing  and  loving  Him. 

So,  dear  friends,  do  not  let  us  be  too  swift  in  saying 
that  this,  that,  and  the  other  thing  are  inconsistent 
with  the  highest  conceptions  of  the  Divine  character. 
I  believe,  as  heartily  as  any  man  can  believe,  that  God 
has  put  His  witness  in  our  consciences  and  minds,  and 
that  all  His  dealings  will  comply  with  any  test  that 
man's  reason  and  man's  conscience  and  man's  heart 


vs.  2, 3]         THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  349 

can  subject  them  to.  Only  we  have  not  got  all  the 
materials  ;  we  look  at  half -finished  work ;  our  eyes  are 
not  quite  so  educated  as  that  we  can  pronounce  infal- 
libly, on  seeing  a  small  segment  of  a  circle,  what  are  its 
diameter  and  its  sweep. 

I  am  always  suspicious  of  that  rough-and-ready  way 
of  settling  questions  about  God's  revelation,  when  a 
man  says  :  •  I  cannot  accept  this  or  that  because  it  con- 
tradicts my  conception  of  the  Divine  nature.'  Unless 
you  are  quite  sure  that  your  conceptions  are  infallibly 
accurate,  unless  you  deny  the  possibility  of  their  being 
educated,  you  must  admit  that  agreement  with  them 
is  but  a  leaden  rule.  And  it  seems  to  me  a  good  deal 
wiser,  and  more  accordant  with  the  modesty  which 
becomes  us,  to  be  cautious  in  pronouncing  what  does 
or  does  not  befit  God  to  do,  and,  until  we  reach  that 
loftier  point  of  vision,  where  being  higher  up  we  can 
see  deeper  down,  to  say  'the  Judge  of  all  the  earth 
must  do  right.  If  He  does  this,  then  it  is  right.'  At 
any  rate  let  us  lay  hold  of  the  plain  truth :  '  O  Lord ! 
Thou  preservest  man  and  beast,'  and  then  we  may 
venture  to  say,  *  Thy  judgments  are  a  mighty  deep,'  and 
beneath  that  deepest  depth,  as  the  roots  of  the  hills 
beneath  the  ocean,  is  God's  righteousness,  which  is  like 
the  great  mountains. 

The  last  thought  that  I  would  suggest  is  that, 
according  to  the  teaching  of  my  text,  we  may  take  that 
old,  old  story  of  the  ransomed  slaves  and  the  baffled 
oppressor  and  the  Divine  intervention  and  the  over- 
whelming ocean,  as  prophecy  full  of  radiant  hope  for 
the  world.  That  is  how  it  is  used  here.  Pharaoh  is 
the  beast,  the  Red  Sea  is  this  'sea  of  glass  mingled 
with  fire,'  the  ransomed  Israelites  are  those  who  have 
conquered  their  way  out  of  the  dominion  of  the  beast, 


350  REVELATION  [ch.  xxi. 

and  the  song  of  Moses  and  of  the  Lamb  is  a  song  par- 
allel to  the  cadences  of  the  ancient  triumphant  chorus, 
and  celebrating  the  annihilation  of  that  power  which 
drew  the  world  away  from  God.  So  we  may  believe 
that  as  Israel  stood  on  the  sands,  and  saw  the  Egyp- 
tians dead  on  the  seashore,  humanity  will  one  day, 
delivered  from  all  its  bestiality  and  its  selfishness,  lift 
up  a  song  of  thanksgiving  to  the  conquering  King  who 
has  drowned  its  enemies  in  the  depths  of  His  own 
righteous  judgments. 

And  as  for  the  world,  so  for  individuals.  If  you  take 
the  Beast  for  your  Pharaoh  and  your  task-master,  you 
will  *  sink '  with  him  '  like  lead  in  the  mighty  waters.' 
If  you  take  the  Lamb  for  your  sacrifice  and  your  King, 
He  will  break  the  bonds  from  off  your  arms,  and  lift 
the  yoke  from  your  neck,  and  lead  you  all  your  lives 
long ;  and  you  will  stand  at  last,  when  the  eternal 
morning  breaks,  and  see  its  dawn  touch  with  golden 
light  the  calm  ocean,  beneath  which  your  oppressors 
lie  buried  for  ever,  and  will  lift  up  glad  thanksgivings 
to  Him  who  has  washed  you  from  your  sins  in  His  own 
blood,  and  made  you  victors  over  '  the  beast,  and  his 
image,  and  the  number  of  his  name.' 


THE  NEW  JERUSALEM  ON  THE  NEW  EARTH 

'And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  now  earth  :  for  the  first  heaven  and  the  first 
earth  were  passed  away ;  and  there  was  no  more  sea.  2.  And  I  John  saw  the  holy 
city,  new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  hiisband.  3.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of  heaven  saying, 
Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  He  will  dwell  with  them,  and  they 
shall  be  His  people,  and  God  Himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God.  i.  And 
God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  Lheir  eyes ;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death, 
neither  sorrow,  nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain  :  for  the  former 
things  are  passed  away.  5.  And  He  that  sat  upon  the  throne  said.  Behold,  I  make 
all  things  new.  And  He  said  unto  me.  Write :  for  these  words  are  true  and  faith- 
ful. 6.  And  He  said  unto  me.  It  is  done.  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginnings 
and  the  end.    I  will  give  unto  him  that  is  athirst  of  the  fountain  of  the  water  of 


vfl.  1-7;  22-27]  THE  NEW  JERUSALEM        851 

life  freely.  7.  He  that  overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things  ;  and  I  will  be  hln  Qed. 
and  He  shall  be  My  eon.  ...  22.  And  I  saw  no  temple  therein :  for  the  Lord  Qod 
Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple  of  It.  23.  And  the  city  had  no  need  of  the 
Bun,  neither  of  the  moon,  to  shine  in  it :  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the 
Lamb  is  the  light  thereof.  24.  And  the  nations  of  them  which  are  saved  shall  walk 
in  the  light  of  it :  and  the  kings  of  the  earth  do  bring  their  glory  and  honour  into 
it.  25.  And  the  gates  of  it  shall  not  be  shut  at  all  by  day :  for  there  shall  be  no 
night  there.  26.  And  they  shall  bring  the  glory  and  honour  of  the  nations  into  it. 
27.  And  there  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it  any  thing  that  deflleLh,  neither  whatso- 
ever worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie:  but  they  which  are  written  in  the 
Lamb's  book  of  life.'— Rev.  xxi.  1-7 ;  22-27. 

The  •  new  Jerusalem  *  can  be  established  only  under  a 
'  new  heaven  '  and  on  a  *  new  earth.'  The  Seer  naturally 
touches  on  these  before  he  describes  it.  And  the  fact 
that  they  come  into  view  here  as  supplying  the  field 
for  it  makes  the  literal  interpretation  of  their  meaning 
the  more  probable.  If  'a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth'  means  a  renovated  condition  of  humanity,  what 
difference  is  there  between  it  and  the  new  Jerusalem 
planted  in  it  ?  We  have  to  remember  the  whole  stream 
of  Old  and  New  Testament  representation,  according 
to  which  the  whole  material  creation  is  'subject  to 
vanity,'  and  destined  for  a  deliverance.  Modern 
astronomy  has  seen  worlds  in  flames  in  the  sky,  and 
passing  by  a  fiery  change  into  new  forms;  and  the 
possibility  of  the  heavens  being  dissolved,  the  elements 
melted  with  fervent  heat,  and  a  new  heavens  and  new 
earth  emerging,  cannot  be  disputed.  In  what  sense 
are  they  *new*?  'New 'here,  as  the  application  of  it 
to  Jerusalem  may  show,  does  not  mean  just  brought 
into  existence,  but  renovated,  made  fresh,  and  implies, 
rather  than  denies,  the  fact  of  previous  existence. 
So,  throughout  Scripture,  the  re-constitution  of  the 
material  world,  by  which  it  passes  from  the  bondage 
of  corruption  into  '  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the 
children  of  God'  is  taught,  and  the  final  seat  of  the 
city  of  God  is  set  forth  as  being,  not  some  far-off,  misty 
heaven  in  space,  but  *  that  new  world  which  is  the  old.' 


352  REVELATION  [ch  xxi. 

'  And  the  sea  is  no  more  *  probably  is  to  be  taken  in  a 
symbolic  sense,  as  shadowing  forth  the  absence  of 
unruly  power,  of  mysterious  and  hostile  forces,  of 
estranging  gulfs  of  separation.  Into  this  renovated 
world  the  renovated  city  floats  down  from  God.  It 
has  been  present  with  Him,  before  its  manifestation  on 
earth,  as  all  things  that  are  to  be  manifested  in  time 
dwell  eternally  in  the  Divine  mind,  and  as  it  had  been 
realised  in  the  person  of  the  ascended  Christ.  When 
He  comes  down  from  heaven  again,  the  city  comes  with 
Him.  It  is  the  '  new  Jerusalem,'  inasmuch  as  the  ideas 
which  were  partially  embodied  in  the  old  Jerusalem 
find  complete  and  ennobled  expression  in  it.  The 
perfect  state  of  perfect  humanity  is  represented  by 
that  society  of  God's  servants,  of  which  the  ancient 
Zion  was  a  symbol.  In  it  all  the  glowing  stream  of 
prophecy  dealing  with  the  *  bridal  of  the  earth  and  of 
the  sky,'  the  marriage  of  perfect  manhood  with  the 
perfect  King,  is  fulfilled. 

II.  The  vision  is  supplemented  by  words  explanatory 
to  the  Seer  of  what  he  beheld  (vs.  3,  4),  and  all  turns 
on  two  great  thoughts — the  blessed  closeness  of  union 
now  perfected  and  made  eternal  between  God  and 
men,  and  the  consequent  dawning  of  a  new,  unsetting 
day  in  which  all  human  ills  shall  be  swept  away.  The 
former  promise  is  cast  in  Old  Testament  mould,  as  are 
almost  all  the  symbols  and  prophecies  of  this  Book  of 
Revelation.  In  outward  form  the  tabernacle  had  stood 
in  the  centre  of  the  wilderness  encampment,  and  in 
the  symbol  of  the  Shekinah,  God  had  dwelt  with  Israel, 
and  they  had  been,  in  name,  and  by  outward  separation 
and  consecration,  His  people.  In  the  militant  state  of 
the  Church  on  the  old  earth,  God  had  dwelt  with  His 
people  in  reality,  but  with,  alas  !  many  a  break  in  the 


1 


vs.  1-7;  22-27]  THE  NEW  JERUSALEM        353 

intercouree  caused  by  His  people  defiling  the  temple. 
But  in  that  future  all  that  was  symbol  shall  be  spiritual 
reality,  and  there  will  be  no  separation  between  the 
God  who  tabernacles  among  men  and  the  men  in  whom 
He  dwells.  The  mutual  relation  of  possession  of  each 
other  shall  be  perfect  and  perpetual.  That  is  the 
brightest  hope  for  us,  and  from  it  all  other  blessedness 
flows.  His  presence  drives  away  all  evils,  as  the  risen 
moon  clears  the  sky  of  clouds.  How  can  sorrow,  or 
crying,  or  pain,  or  death,  live  where  He  is,  as  He  will 
be  in  the  perfected  city  ?  The  undescribable  future  is 
best  described  by  the  negation  of  all  that  is  sad  and 
a  foe  to  life.  Reverse  the  miseries  of  earth,  and  you 
know  something  of  the  joys  of  heaven.  But  begin 
with  God's  presence,  or  you  will  know  nothing  of  their 
most  joyful  joy. 

III.  The  great  voice  speaks  again,  proclaiming  the 
guarantees  of  the  vision,  and  the  conditions  of  posses- 
sing its  fruition  (vs.  5-7).  How  can  we  be  sure  that 
these  radiant  hopes  are  better  than  delusions,  lights 
thrown  on  the  black  curtain  of  the  unknown  future  by 
the  reflection  of  our  own  imaginations  ?  Only  because 
•  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,'  and  is  therefore 
sovereign  over  all  things,  has  declared  that  He  will 
'  make  all  things  new.'  His  power  and  faithful  word 
are  the  sole  guarantees.  Therefore  seers  may  write, 
and  we  may  read,  and  be  sure  that  when  heaven  and 
earth  pass  away  His  word  shall  not  only  not  pass  away, 
but  bring  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth.  So  sure 
is  the  fulfilment,  that  already,  to  the  divine  mind,  these 
things  'are  come  to  pass.'  Faith  may  share  in  the 
df  *ne  prerogative  of  seeing  things  that  are  not  as 
though  they  were,  and  make  the  future  present.  He 
who  is  Alpha,  the  beginning,  from  whom  are  all  things, 

z 


a54  REVELATION  [ch.  xxi. 

is  Omega,  the  end,  to  whom  are  all  things.  There  lies 
the  security  that  the  drift  of  the  universe  is  towards 
God,  its  source,  and  that  at  last  man,  who  came  from 
God,  will  come  back  to  God,  and  Eden  be  surpassed  by 
the  new  Jerusalem. 

The  conditions  of  entering  the  city  are  gathered  up 
in  words  which  recall  many  strains  of  prophecy  and 
promise.  Thirst  is  the  condition  of  drinking  of  the 
water  of  life — as  John  the  Evangelist  delights  to  tell 
that  Jesus  said  by  the  well  at  Samaria  and  in  the 
temple  court.  Conflict  and  victory  make  His  children 
heirs  of  these  things,  as  the  Christ  had  spoken  by  the 
Spirit  to  the  churches.  The  Christian  victory  perfects 
the  paternal  and  filial  relation  between  God  and  us. 
And  all  three  promises  are  but  variations  of  the 
answer  to  the  question :  How  can  I  become  a  citizen  of 
that  city  of  God  ? 

IV.  A  fuller  description,  highly  symbolical  in  colour- 
ing, of  the  city,  comes  next  (vs.  22-27),  on  which  space 
will  only  allow  us  to  remark  that  we  have,  first,  two 
representations,  in  each  of  which  the  city's  glory  is 
expressed  by  the  absence  from  it  of  a  great  good, 
occasioned  by  the  presence  of  a  greater,  of  which  the 
lesser  was  but  a  shadowy  similitude.  There  is  no 
temple,  no  outward  shrine,  no  place  of  special  com- 
munion, no  dependence  on  externals,  because  the 
communion  with  God  and  the  Lamb  is  perfect,  con- 
tinuous, spiritual.  There  is  no  sun,  moon,  nor  artificial 
light,  for  far  brighter  than  their  feeble  beams  is  the 
light  in  which  the  citizens  see  light.  That  light  is 
perpetual,  and  no  night  ever  darkens  the  sky.  That 
light  draws  all  men  to  it.  Possibly  the  Seer  thinks  of 
kings  and  nations  as  still  subsisting,  but  more  probably 
he  carries  over  the  features  of  the  old  earth  into  the 


vs.  1-7;  22-27]  NO  MORE   SEA  355 

new,  in  order  to  expresa  the  great  hope  that  all  shall 
be  drawn  to  the  light,  and  royalties  and  nations  be 
merged  in  citizenship.  One  solemn  word  limits  the 
universality  of  the  vision.  Nothing  excludes  but 
uncleanness,  but  that  does  exclude.  The  roll  of  citizens 
is  the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  and  we  may  all  have  our 
names  written  there.  Only  we  must  be  pure,  thirsty 
for  the  water  of  life,  and  fight  and  conquer  through 
Jesus. 


NO  MORE  SEA 

*And  there  was  no  more  sea.'— Rbv.  xxL  L' 

•I  John,'  says  the  Apocalypse  at  its  commencement, 
'  was  in  the  isle  that  is  called  Patmos,  for  the  testimony 
of  Jesus.'  In  this,  the  one  prophetic  book  of  the  New 
Testament,  we  find  the  same  fact  that  meets  us  in  the 
old  prophecies,  that  the  circumstances  of  the  prophet 
colour,  and  become  the  medium  for,  the  representation 
of  the  spiritual  truths  that  he  has  to  speak.  All 
through  the  book  we  hear  the  dash  of  the  waves. 
There  was  '  a  sea  of  fire  mingled  with  glass  before  the 
throne.'  The  star  Wormwood  fell  'upon  the  sea.' 
Out  of  the  sea  the  beast  rises.  When  the  great  angel 
would  declare  the  destruction  of  Babylon,  he  casts  a 
mighty  stone  into  the  ocean,  and  says, '  Thus  suddenly 
shall  Babylon  be  destroyed.'  And  when  John  hears 
the  voice  of  praise  of  the  redeemed,  it  is  *  like  the  voice 
of  many  waters,'  as  well  as  like  the  voice  of  *  harpers 
harping  on  their  harps.*  And  then,  when  there  dawns 
at  the  close  of  the  vision,  the  bright  and  the  blessed 
time  which  has  yet  to  come,  the  '  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth '  are  revealed  to  him ;  and  that   sad  and 


356  REVELATION  [ch.  xxi. 

solitary  and  estranging  ocean  that  raged  around  his 
little  rock  sanctuary  has  passed  away  for  ever.  I  sup- 
pose I  need  not  occupy  your  time  in  showing  that  this 
is  a  symbol ;  that  it  does  not  mean  literal  fact  at  all ; 
that  it  is  not  telling  us  anything  about  the  geography  of 
a  future  world,  but  that  it  is  the  material  embodiment 
of  a  great  spiritual  truth. 

Now  what  is  meant  by  this  symbol  is  best  ascertained 
by  remembering  how  the  sea  appears  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. The  Jew  was  not  a  sailor.  All  the  references 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  especially  in  the  prophets, 
to  the  great  ocean  are  such  as  a  man  would  make  who 
knew  very  little  about  it,  except  from  having  looked 
at  it  from  the  hills  of  Judea,  and  having  often  won- 
dered what  might  be  lying  away  out  yonder  at  the 
point  where  sky  and  sea  blended  together.  There  are 
three  main  things  which  it  shadows  forth  in  the  Old 
Testament.  It  is  a  symbol  of  mystery,  of  rebellious 
power,  of  perpetual  unrest.  And  it  is  the  promise  of 
the  cessation  of  these  things  which  is  set  forth  in  that 
saying,  •  There  was  no  more  sea.'  There  shall  be  no 
more  mystery  and  terror.  There  shall  be  no  more  *  the 
floods  lifting  up  their  voice,'  and  the  waves  dashing 
with  impotent  foam  against  the  throne  of  God. 
There  shall  be  no  more  the  tossing  and  the  tumult  of 
changing  circumstances,  and  no  more  the  unrest  and 
disquiet  of  a  sinful  heart.  There  shall  be  the  'new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth.'  The  old  humanity  will  be 
left,  and  the  relation  to  God  will  remain,  deepened  and 
glorified  and  made  pure.  But  all  that  is  sorrowful  and 
all  that  is  rebellious,  all  that  is  mysterious  and  all  that 
is  unquiet,  shall  have  passed  away  for  ever. 

I.  Let  us  then,  by  way  of  illustrating  this  great  and 
blessed  promise,  consider  it  first  as  the  revelation  of  a 


v.l]  NO  MORE  SEA  857 

future  in  which  there  shall  be  no  more  painful 
mystery. 

*Thy  way  is  in  the  sea,  and  Thy  path  in  the  great 
waters,  and  Thy  footsteps  are  not  known.'  'Thy 
judgments  are  a  mighty  deep.*  '  O  the  depth  of  the 
riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  of  the  knowledge  of 
God  !  How  unsearchable  are  His  judgments,  and  His 
ways  past  finding  out  1 '  Such  is  the  prevailing  tone  of 
expression  when  the  figure  appears  either  in  the  Old  or 
in  the  New  Testament. 

Most  natural  is  it.  There  are,  too,  sources  of  obscurity 
there.  We  look  out  upon  the  broad  ocean,  and  far  away 
it  seems  to  blend  with  air  and  sky.  Mists  come  up  over 
its  surface.  Suddenly  there  rises  on  the  verge  of  the 
horizon  a  white  sail  that  was  not  there  a  moment  ago  ; 
and  we  wonder,  as  we  look  out  from  our  hills,  what 
may  be  beyond  these  mysterious  waters.  And  to  these 
ancient  peoples  there  were  mysteries  which  we  do  not 
feel.  Whither  should  they  come,  if  they  were  to  venture 
on  its  untried  tides  ?  And  then,  what  lies  in  its  sun- 
less caves  that  no  eyes  have  seen  ?  It  swallows  up  life 
and  beauty  and  treasure  of  every  sort,  and  engulfs 
them  all  in  its  obstinate  silence.  They  go  down  in  the 
mighty  waters  and  vanish  as  they  descend.  What 
would  it  be  if  these  were  drained  off  ?  What  revela- 
tions— wild  sea-valleys  and  mountain-gorges ;  the  dead 
that  are  in  it,  the  power  that  lies  there,  all  powerless 
now,  the  wealth  that  has  been  lost  in  it !  What  should 
we  see  if  depth  and  distance  were  annihilated,  and  we 
beheld  what  there  is  out  yonder,  and  what  there  is 
down  there  ? 

And  is  not  our  life,  brethren,  ringed  round  in  like 
manner  with  mystery  ?  And,  alas !  wherever  to  a  poor 
human  heart  there  is  mystery,  there  will  be   terror. 


858  REVELATION  [oh.  xxi. 

The  unknown  is  ever  the  awful.  Where  there  is  not 
certain  knowledge,  imagination  works  to  people  the 
waste  places  with  monsters.  There  is  a  double  limita- 
tion of  our  knowledge.  There  are  mysteries  that  come 
from  the  necessary  limitation  of  our  faculties;  and 
there  are  mysteries  that  come  from  the  incompleteness 
of  the  revelation  which  God  has  been  pleased  to  make. 
The  eye  is  weak  and  the  light  is  dim.  There  is  much 
that  lies  beyond  the  horizon  which  our  eyes  cannot 
reach.  There  is  much  that  lies  covered  by  the  deeps, 
which  our  eyes  could  reach  if  the  deeps  were  away. 
We  live — the  wisest  of  us  live — having  great  questions 
wrestling  with  us  like  that  angel  that  wrestled  with  the 
patriarch  in  the  darkness  till  the  morning  broke.  We 
learn  so  little  but  our  own  ignorance,  and  we  know  so 
little  but  that  we  know  nothing.  There  are  the  hard 
and  obstinate  knots  that  will  not  be  untied ;  we  bend 
all  our  faculties  to  them,  and  think  they  are  giving  a 
little  bit,  and  they  never  give  ;  and  we  gnaw  at  them, 
like  the  viper  at  the  file,  and  we  make  nothing  of  it, 
but  blunt  our  teeth  ! 

Oh !  to  some  hearts  here,  surely  this  ought  to  come 
as  not  the  least  noble  and  precious  of  the  thoughts  of 
what  that  future  life  is — *  there  shall  be  no  more  sea ' ; 
and  the  mysteries  that  come  from  God's  merciful  limi- 
tation of  our  vision,  and  some  of  the  mysteries  that 
come  from  God's  wise  and  providential  interposition 
of  obstacles  to  our  sight,  shall  have  passed  away.  It  is 
no  dream,  my  brethren  I  Why,  think  how  the  fact  of 
dying  will  solve  many  a  riddle !  how  much  more  we 
shall  know  by  shifting  our  position !  *  There  must  be 
wisdom  with  great  Death,'  and  he  *  keeps  the  keys  of 
all  the  creeds.'  Try  to  conceive  how  some  dear  one 
that  was  beside  us  but  a  moment  ago,  perhaps  but 


v.l]  NO  MORE  SEA  859 

little  conscious  of  his  own  ignorance,  and  knowing  but 
little  of  God's  ways,  thinking  as  we  did,  and  speaking 
as  we  did,  and  snared  with  errors  as  we  were,  has 
grown  at  a  bound  into  full  stature,  and  how  a  flood  of 
new  knowledge  and  Divine  truth  rushes  into  the  heart 
the  moment  it  passes  the  grave  I  If  they  were  to  speak 
to  us,  perhaps  we  should  not  understand  their  new 
speech,  so  wise  have  they  become  who  have  died. 

What  mysteries  have  passed  into  light  for  them  ?  I 
know  not.  Who  can  tell  what  strange  enlargement 
of  faculty  this  soul  of  ours  is  capable  of  ?  Who  can 
tell  how  much  of  our  blindness  comes  from  the  flesh 
that  clogs  us,  from  the  working  of  the  animal  nature 
that  is  so  strong  in  us?  Who  can  tell  what  unknown 
resources  and  what  possibilities  of  new  powers  there 
lie  all  dormant  and  unsuspected  in  the  beggar  on  the 
dunghill,  and  in  the  idiot  in  the  asylum?  This,  at 
least,  we  are  sure  of :  we  shall  '  know,  even  as  also  we 
are  known.'  God  will  not  be  fathomed,  but  God  will  be 
known.  God  will  be  incomprehensible,  but  there  will 
be  no  mystery  in  God,  except  that  most  blessed  mystery 
of  feeling  that  the  fulness  of  His  nature  still  surpasses 
our  comprehension.  Questions  that  now  fill  the  whole 
horizon  of  our  minds  will  have  shrunk  away  into  a 
mere  point,  or  been  answered  by  the  very  change  of 
position.  How  much  of  the  knowledges  of  earth  will 
have  ceased  to  be  applicable,  when  the  first  light-beam 
of  heaven  falls  upon  them  !  Those  problems  which  we 
think  so  mysterious — why  God  is  doing  this  or  that 
with  us  and  the  world ;  what  is  the  meaning  of  this 
and  the  other  sorrow — what  will  have  become  of  these  ? 
We  shall  look  back  and  see  that  the  bending  line  was 
leading  straight  as  an  arrow-flight,  home  to  the  centre, 
and  that  the  end  crowns  and  vindicates  every  step  of 


360  REVELATION  [ch.  xxi. 

the  road.  Something  of  the  mystery  of  God  will  have 
been  resolved,  for  man  hath  powers  undreamed  of  yet, 
and  '  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.'  Much  of  the  mystery 
of  man,  and  of  man's  relation  to  God,  will  have  ceased  ; 
for  then  we  shall  understand  all  the  way,  when  we 
have  entered  into  the  true  sanctuary  of  God. 

Men  that  love  to  know,  let  me  ask  you,  where  do  you 
get  the  fulfilment,  often  dreamed  of,  of  your  desires, 
except  here  ?  Set  this  before  you,  as  the  highest  truth 
for  us  :  Christ  is  the  beginning  of  all  wisdom  on  earth. 
Starting  thence  I  can  hope  to  solve  the  remaining 
mysteries  when  I  stand  at  last,  redeemed  by  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  light  of 
God. 

Not  that  we  shall  know  everything,  for  that  were  to 
cease  to  be  finite.  And  if  ever  the  blasphemous  boast 
come  true  that  tempted  man  once,  *  Ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil,'  there  were  nothing  left  for  the 
soul  that  was  filled  with  all  knowledge  but  to  lie  down 
and  pant  its  last.  It  needs,  by  our  very  nature,  and  for 
our  blessedness,  that  there  should  be  much  unknown. 
It  needs  that  we  should  ever  be  pressing  forward.  Only, 
the  mysteries  that  are  left  will  have  no  terror  nor  pain 
in  them.  'There  shall  be  no  more  sea,'  but  we  shall 
climb  ever  higher  and  higher  up  the  mountain  of  God, 
and  as  we  climb  see  farther  and  farther  into  the  blessed 
valleys  beyond,  and  'shall  know,  even  as  we  are 
known.' 

II.  Secondly,  the  text  tells  us  of  a  state  that  is  to 
come,  when  there  shall  be  no  more  rebellious  power. 
In  the  Old  Testament  the  floods  are  often  compared 
with  the  rage  of  the  peoples,  and  the  rebellion  of  man 
against  the  Will  of  God.  'The  floods  have  lifted  up, 
O  Lord,  the  floods  have  lifted  up  their  voice.    The  Lord 


T.l]  NO  MORE  SEA  861 

on  high  18  mightier  than  the  noise  of  many  waters ; 
yea,  than  the  mighty  waves  of  the  sea.'  '  Thou  stillest 
the  noise  of  the  waves,  and  the  tumult  of  the  people.' 
In  like  manner  that  symbolic  reference  surely  supplies 
one  chief  meaning  of  Christ's  miracle  of  stilling  the 
tempest ;  the  Peace-bringer  bringing  to  peace  the 
tumults  of  men.  Here,  then,  the  sea  stands  as  the 
emblem  of  untamed  power.  It  is  lashed  into  yeasty 
foam,  and  drives  before  it  great  ships  and  huge  stones 
like  bulrushes,  and  seems  to  have  a  savage  pleasure  in 
eating  into  the  slow-corroding  land,  and  covering  the 
beach  with  its  devastation. 

•  There  shall  be  no  more  sea.*  God  lets  people  work 
against  His  kingdom  in  this  world.  It  is  not  to  be 
always  so,  says  my  text.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  in  the 
earth,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  admits  of  opposition. 
Strange  !  But  the  opposition,  even  here  on  earth,  all 
comes  to  nothing.  '  Thou  art  mightier  than  the  noise 
of  many  waters  ' ;  the  floods  *  have  lifted  up  their  voice' ; 
but  Thou  *  sittest  upon  the  floods,  yea,  Thou  sittest  king 
for  ever.*  Yes,  it  is  an  experience  repeated  over  and 
over  again,  in  the  history  of  individuals  and  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  Men,  fancying  themselves  free, 
resolved  to  be  rebellious,  get  together  and  say,  mutter- 
ingly  at  first,  and  then  boldly  and  loudly,  '  Let  us  break 
His  bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  His  cords  from  us.' 
And  God  sits  in  seeming  silence  in  His  heavens,  and 
they  work  on,  and  the  thing  seems  to  be  prospering, 
and  some  men's  hearts  begin  to  fail  them  for  fear.  The 
great  Armada  comes  in  its  pride  across  the  waters — 
and  the  motto  that  our  England  struck  upon  its  medal, 
when  that  proud  fleet  was  baffled,  serves  for  the 
epitaph  over  all  antagonism  to  God's  kingdom,  '  The 
Lord  blew  upon  them,  and  they  were  scattered.'    The 


862  REVELATION  [oh.  xxi. 

tossing  sea,  that  rages  against  the  will  and  purpose  of 
the  Lord,  what  becomes  of  all  its  foaming  fury  ?  Why, 
this  becomes  of  it — the  ark  of  God  *  moves  on  the  face 
of  the  waters,'  and  though  wild  tempests  howl  to  beat 
it  from  its  course,  yet  beneath  all  the  surface  confusion 
and  commotion  there  is,  as  in  the  great  mid-ocean,  a 
silent  current  that  runs  steady  and  strong,  and  it 
carries  the  keel  that  goes  deep  enough  down  to  rest  in 
it,  safely  to  its  port.  Men  may  work  against  God's 
kingdom,  the  waves  may  rave  and  rage ;  but  beneath 
them  there  is  a  mighty  tidal  sweep,  and  God's  purposes 
are  wrought  out,  and  God's  ark  comes  to '  its  desired 
haven,'  and  all  opposition  is  nugatory  at  the  last. 

But  there  comes  a  time,  too,  when  there  shall  be  no 
more  violence  of  rebellious  wills  lifting  themselves 
against  God.  Our  text  is  a  blessed  promise  that,  in 
that  holy  state  to  which  the  Apocalyptic  vision  carries 
our  longing  hopes,  there  shall  be  the  cessation  of  all 
strife  against  our  best  Friend,  of  all  reluctance  to  wear 
His  yoke  whose  yoke  brings  rest  to  the  soul.  The 
opposition  that  lies  in  all  our  hearts  shall  one  day  be 
subdued.  The  whole  consent  of  our  whole  being  shall 
yield  itself  to  the  obedience  of  sons,  to  the  service  of 
love.  The  wild  rebellious  power  shall  be  softened  into 
peace,  and  won  to  joyful  acceptance  of  His  law.  In  all 
the  regions  of  that  heavenly  state,  there  shall  be  no 
jarring  will,  no  reluctant  submission.  Its  '  solemn 
troops  and  sweet  societies '  shall  move  in  harmonious 
consent  of  according  hearts,  and  circle  His  throne  in 
continuousness  of  willing  fealty.  There  shall  be  One 
will  in  heaven.  'There  shall  be  no  more  sea';  for 
*  His  servants  serve  Him,'  and  the  noise  of  the  waves 
has  died  away  for  ever. 

Before  I  pass  on,  let  me  appeal  to  you,  my  friend,  on 


V.  1]  NO  MORE  SEA  863 

this  matter.  Here  is  the  revelation  for  us  of  the  utter 
hopelessness  and  vanity  of  all  opposition  to  God.  Oh  ! 
what  a  thought  that  is,  that  every  life  that  sets  itself 
against  the  Lord  is  a  futile  life,  that  it  comes  to  nothing 
at  last,  that  none  hardens  himself  against  God  and 
prospers !  It  is  true  on  the  widest  scale.  It  is  true  on 
the  narrowest.  It  is  true  about  all  those  tempests  that 
have  risen  up  against  God's  Church  and  Christ's  Gospel, 
like  *  waves  of  the  sea  foaming  out  their  own  shame,' 
and  never  shaking  the  great  rock  that  they  break 
against.  And  it  is  true  about  all  godless  lives  ;  about 
every  man  who  carries  on  his  work,  except  in  loving 
obedience  to  his  Father  in  heaven.  There  is  one 
power  in  the  world,  and  none  else.  When  all  is  played 
out,  and  accounts  are  set  right  at  the  end,  you  will  find 
that  the  power  that  seemed  to  be  strong,  if  it  stood 
against  God,  was  weak  as  water  and  has  done  nothing, 
and  is  nothing !  Do  not  waste  your  lives  in  a  work 
that  is  self-condemned  to  be  hopeless !  Rather  ally 
yourselves  with  the  tendencies  of  God's  universe,  and 
do  the  thing  which  will  last  for  ever,  and  live  the  life 
that  has  hope  of  fruit  that  shall  remain.  Submit 
yourselves  to  God !  Love  Christ !  Do  His  will !  Put 
your  faith  in  the  Saviour  to  deliver  you  from  your 
sins ;  and  when  the  wild  tossing  of  that  great  ocean  of 
ungodly  power  and  rebellious  opposition  is  all  hushed 
down  into  dead  silence,  you  and  your  work  will  last 
and  live  hard  by  the  stable  throne  of  God. 

III.  Lastly,  the  text  foretells  a  state  of  things  in  which 
there  is  no  more  disquiet  and  unrest.  The  old,  old 
figure  which  all  the  world,  generation  after  generation 
in  its  turn,  has  spoken,  is  a  Scriptural  one  as  well,  and 
enters  into  the  fulness  of  the  meaning  of  this  passage 
before  us.     Life  is  a  voyage  over  a  turbulent  sea; 


364  REVELATION  [ch.xxi. 

changing  circumstances  come  rolling  after  each  other, 
like  the  undistinguishable  billows  of  the  great  ocean. 
Tempests  and  storms  rise.  There  is  wearisome  sailing, 
no  peace,  but  'ever  climbing  up  the  climbing  wave.' 
That  is  life  !  But  for  all  that,  friends,  there  is  an  end 
to  it  some  day ;  and  it  is  worth  while  for  us  to  think 
about  our  •  island  home,  far,  far  beyond  the  sea.' 
Surely  some  of  us  have  learned  the  weariness  of  this 
changeful  state,  the  weariness  of  the  work  and  voyage 
of  this  world.  Surely  some  of  us  are  longing  to  find 
anchorage  whilst  the  storm  lasts,  and  a  haven  at  the 
end.  There  is  one,  if  only  you  will  believe  it,  and  set 
yourselves  towards  it.  There  is  an  end  to  all  'the 
weary  oar,  the  weary  wandering  fields  of  barren  foam.' 
On  the  shore  stands  the  Christ ;  and  there  is  rest  there. 
There  is  no  more  sea,  but  unbroken  rest,  unchanging 
blessedness,  perpetual  stability  of  joy,  and  love  in  the 
Father's  house.  Are  we  going  there  ?  Are  we  living 
for  Christ?  Are  we  putting  our  confidence  in  the 
Lord  Jesus?  Then,  *He  brings  us  to  the  desired 
haven.' 

One  thing  more  :  not  only  does  unrest  come  from  the 
chaos  of  changing  circumstances,  but  besides  that,  there 
is  another  source  of  disquiet,  which  this  same  symbol 
sets  forth  for  us.  *  The  wicked  is  like  the  troubled  sea 
which  cannot  rest,  whose  waters  cast  up  mire  and  dirt. 
That  restless,  profitless  working  of  the  great  homeless, 
hungry,  moaning  ocean — what  a  picture  it  is  of  the  heart 
of  a  man  that  has  no  Christ,  that  has  no  God,  that  has 
no  peace  by  pardon!  A  soul  all  tossed  with  its  own 
boiling  passion,  a  soul  across  which  there  howl  great 
gusts  of  temptation,  a  soul  which  works  and  brings 
forth  nothing  but  foam  and  mire !  Unrest,  perpetual 
unrest  is  the  lot  of  every  man  that  is  not  God's  child. 


v.l]  NO  MORE  SEA  865 

Some  of  you  know  that.  Well,  then,  think  of  one 
picture.  A  little  barque  pitching  in  the  night,  and  one 
figure  rises  quietly  up  in  the  stern,  and  puts  out  a  re- 
buking hand,  and  speaks  one  mighty  word, '  Peace  1  be 
still.'  And  the  word  was  heard  amid  all  the  hurly- 
burly  of  the  tempest,  and  the  waves  crouched  at  His 
feet  like  dogs  to  their  master.  It  is  no  fancy,  brethren, 
it  is  a  truth.  Let  Christ  speak  to  your  hearts,  and  there 
is  peace  and  quietness.  And  if  He  do  that,  then  your 
experience  will  be  like  that  described  in  the  grand  old 
Psalm, '  Though  the  waters  roar  and  be  troubled,  and 
though  the  mountains  shake  with  the  swelling  thereof, 
yet  will  we  not  fear,'  for  the  city  stands  fast,  in  spite 
of  the  waves  that  curl  round  its  lowest  foundations. 
Death,  death  itself,  will  be  but  the  last  burst  of  the  ex- 
piring storm,  the  last  blast/ of  the  blown-out  tempest. 
And  then,  the  quiet  of  the  green  inland  valleys  of  our 
Father's  land,  where  no  tempest  comes  any  more,  nor 
the  loud  winds  are  ever  heard,  nor  the  salt  sea  is  ever 
seen ;  but  perpetual  calm  and  blessedness ;  all  mystery 
gone,  and  all  rebellion  hushed  and  silenced,  and  all  un- 
rest at  an  end  for  ever !  '  No  more  sea,'  but,  instead  of 
that  wild  and  yeasty  chaos  of  turbulent  waters,  there 
shall  be  '  the  river  that  makes  glad  the  city  of  God,' 
the  river  of  water  of  life,  that  *  proceeds  out  of  the 
throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.' 


THE  CITY,  THE  CITIZENS,  AND  THE  KING 

•And  he  shewed  me  a  pore  river  of  water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out 
of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.  2.  In  the  midst  of  the  street  of  it,  and  on 
either  side  of  the  river,  was  there  the  tree  of  life,  which  bare  twelve  manner  of 
fruits,  and  yielded  her  fruit  everymonth :  and  the  leaves  of  the  tree  were  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations.  3.  And  there  shall  be  no  more  curse :  but  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  in  it ;  and  His  servants  shall  serve  Him :  i.  And  they 
shall  see  His  face  ;  and  His  name  shall  be  in  their  foreheads.  5.  And  there  shall 
be  no  night  there ;  and  they  need  no  candle,  neither  light  of  the  sun ;  for  the  Lord 
God  giveth  them  light :  and  they  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.  6.  And  He  said 
untome.  These  sayings  are  faithful  and  true :  and  the  Lord  God  of  the  holy  prophets 
sent  His  angel  to  shew  UT^to  His  servants  the  things  which  must  shortly  be  done. 
7.  Behold,  I  come  quickly :  blessed  is  he  that  keepeth  the  sayings  of  the  prophecy 
of  this  book.  8.  And  I  John  saw  these  things,  and  heard  them.  And  when  I  had 
heard  and  seen,  I  fell  down  to  worship  before  the  feet  of  the  angel  which  shewed 
me  these  things.  9.  Then  saith  he  unto  me.  See  thou  do  it  not :  for  I  am  thy 
fellow-servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  the  prophets,  and  of  them  which  keep  the 
sayings  of  this  book:  worship  God.  10.  And  he  saith  unto  me.  Seal  not  the  say- 
ings of  the  prophecy  of  this  book :  for  the  time  is  at  hand.  11.  He  that  is  unjust, 
let  him  be  unjust  still:  and  he  which  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still:  and  he  that 
is  righteous,  let  him  be  righteous  still :  and  he  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still.'— 
Rev.  xxii.  1-11. 

Is  the  vision  of  the  new  Jerusalem  to  be  realised  in 
the  present  or  in  the  future?  Sueh  features  as  the 
existence  of  '  nations '  and  '  kings  of  the  earth '  outside 
of  it  (vs.  21,  24),  and  leaves  of  the  tree  of  life  being  *  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations,'  favour  the  former  reference, 
while  its  place  in  the  book,  after  the  first  and  second 
resurrections  and  the  judgment  and  at  the  very  end  of 
the  whole,  seems  to  oblige  us  to  hold  by  the  latter. 
But  the  question  must  be  answered  in  the  light  of  the 
fact  that  the  Christian  life  is  one  in  essence  in  both 
worlds,  and  that  the  difference  between  the  conditions 
of  the  society  of  the  redeemed  here  and  there  is  only 
one  of  degree.  The  •  city  *  has  already  come  down  from 
heaven  ;  its  perfect  form  waits  to  be  manifested. 

The  passage  is  partly  the  close  of  that  vision  (vs.  1-5), 
and  partly  the  beginning  of  the  epilogue  of  the  whole 
book  (vs.  6-11).  The  closing  description  of  the  city  is 
saturated  with  allusions  to  Old  Testament  prophecy. 

M6 


vs.1-11]  THE  CITY,  CITIZENS,  AND  KING  867 

It  is  like  the  finale  of  Bome  great  concerto,  in  which 
the  themes  that  have  sounded  throughout  it  are  all 
gathered  up  in  the  last  majestic,  melodious  crash. 
Here  at  the  farthest  point  to  which  mortal  eyes  are 
allowed  to  pierce,  the  *  tree  of  life '  that  the  first  of 
mortal  eyes  had  looked  on  waves  its  branches  again. 
The  end  has  circled  round  to  the  beginning.  But  now 
there  is  no  more  prohibition  to  pluck  and  eat,  and 
now  it  grows,  not  in  a  garden,  but  in  a  city  where  the 
perfection  of  human  society  is  entered  into. 

Here,  on  the  last  page  of  Scripture,  the  river,  the 
music  of  whose  ripple  had  been  heard  by  Ezekiel  and 
Zechariah  bringing  life  to  everything  that  it  laved,  and 
by  the  Psalmist  making  •  glad  the  city  of  God,'  flows 
with  a  broader,  fuller  stream,  and  is  fouled  by  no  stains, 
but  is  '  clear  as  crystal.'  River  and  tree  have  the  same 
epithet,  and  bring  the  same  gift  to  the  citizens.  All 
the  blessings  which  Jesus  gives  are  summed  up,  both 
in  John's  Gospel  and  in  the  Apocalypse,  as  •  life.'  The 
only  true  life  is  to  live  as  God's  redeemed  servants,  and 
that  life  is  ours  here  and  now  if  we  are  His.  It  is  but 
a  *  stream  *  of  the  river  that  gladdens  us  here,  the  fruit 
has  not  yet  its  full  flavour  nor  abundance.  *  It  is  life, 
more  life,  for  which  we  pant,'  and  the  desire  will  be 
satisfied  there  when  the  river  runs  always  full,  and 
every  month  the  fruit  hangs  ripe  and  ready  to  be 
dropped  into  happy  hands  from  among  the  healing 
leaves. 

In  verses  3  and  4  we  pass  from  the  city  to  the 
citizens.  Perfect  purity  clothes  them  all.  •  There  shall 
be  no  more  anything  accursed';  that  is,  any  unclean 
thing  drawing  down  necessarily  the  divine  '  curse,'  and 
therefore  there  shall  be  no  separation,  no  film  of  dis- 
tance between  the  King  and  the  people,  but  *  the  throne 


368  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

of  God  and  the  Lamb  shall  be  therein.'  The  seer  has 
already  beheld  the  Lamb  close  by  the  throne  of  God, 
but  now  he  sees  Him  sharing  it  in  indissoluble  union. 
Perfect  purity  leads  to  perfect  union  with  God  and  (or 
rather  in)  Christ,  and  unbroken,  glad  submission  to  His 
regal  rule.  And  that  perfect  submission  is  the  occu- 
pation and  delight  of  all  the  citizens.  They  are  His 
•  bond-servants,'  and  their  fetters  are  golden  chains  of 
honour  and  ornament.  They  '  do  Him  service,'  minis- 
tering as  priests,  and  all  their  acts  are  '  begun,  con- 
tinued, and  ended  in  Him.'  Having  been  faithful  over 
a  few  things,  they  are  made  rulers  over  many  things, 
and  are  yet  bond-servants,  though  rulers. 

In  that  higher  service  the  weary  schism  between  the 
active  and  the  contemplative  life  is  closed  up.  Mary 
and  Martha  end  their  long  variance,  and  gazing  on  His 
face  does  not  hinder  active  obedience,  nor  does  doing 
Him  service  distract  from  beholding  His  beauty.  •  His 
name  shall  be  in  their  foreheads,'  conspicuous  and  un- 
mistakable, no  longer  faintly  traced  or  often  concealed, 
but  flaming  on  their  brows.  They  are  known  to  be 
His,  because  their  characters  are  conformed  to  His. 
They  bear  '  the  marks  of  Jesus '  in  complete  and  visible 
assimilation  to  Him. 

The  vision  closes  with  an  echo  of  Old  Testament  pro- 
phecy (Isaiah  Ix.  19).  'No  night' — perhaps  the  most 
blessed  of  all  John's  negative  descriptions  of  the  future 
state,  indicating  the  removal  for  ever  of  all  the  evil  and 
woe  symbolised  by  darkness,  and  pointing  to  a  state  in 
which  no  artifices  of  ours  are  needed  to  brighten  our 
gloom  with  poor,  man-made  candles,  nor  any  created 
light,  though  mighty  and  resplendent  as  the  sun,  whose 
beams  fade  into  invisibility  before  the  immortal  radi- 
ance that  pours  out  for  ever  from  the  throne,  brighten- 


vs.i-ii]  THE  CITY,  CITIZENS,  AND  KING  360 

ing  every  glorified  face  that  is  turned  to  its  lustre. 
Thus  seeing,  serving,  and  being  like  'God  and  the  Lamb,' 
they,  as  a  consequence,  •  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever,' 
for  they  are  as  He  is,  and  while  He  lives  and  reigns 
they  also  live  and  reign. 

With  verse  6  begins  the  epilogue.  An  angel  speaks, 
the  same  as  in  chapter  i.  1 — is  represented  as  '  signify- 
ing '  the  '  revelation '  to  John.  He  now,  as  it  were,  sets 
his  seal  on  his  completed  roll  of  prophecy.  To  dis- 
criminate between  the  words  of  the  angel  and  of  Jesus 
is  impossible.  Jesus  speaks  through  him.  '  Behold,  I 
come  quickly '  cannot  be  merely  the  angel's  voice.  As 
in  verse  12,  a  deeper  voice  speaks  through  his  lips. 
The  purpose  of  that  solemn  announcement  is  to  impress 
on  the  Asiatic  churches,  and  through  them  on  the  whole 
Church  through  all  time,  the  importance  of  keeping 
'  the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book.'  *  Quickly ' — 
and  yet  nineteen  hundred  years  have  gone  since  then  ? 
Yes ;  and  during  them  all  Jesus  has  been  coming,  and 
the  words  of  this  book  have  progressively  been  in  pro- 
cess of  fulfilment. 

Again,  the  speedy  coming  is  enforced  as  a  reason  for 
not  sealing  up  the  prophecy,  as  had  been  commanded 
in  chapter  x.  4,  and  elsewhere  in  the  Old  Testament. 
And  a  very  solemn  thought  closes  our  lesson — that 
there  is  a  moment,  the  eve  of  any  great  •  day  of  the 
Lord,'  when  there  is  no  more  time  or  opportunity  for 
change  of  moral  or  spiritual  disposition.  '  Too  late,  too 
late,  ye  cannot  enter  now.'  Let  us  '  redeem  the  time,' 
buy  back  the  opportunity  while  yet  it  is  within  our 
grasp. 


2a 


THE  TRIPLE  RAYS  WHICH  MAKE  THE  WHITE 
LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN 

* .  .  .  His  servants  shall  serve  Him :  4  And  they  shall  see  Hla  faoe ;  and  Hla  name 
shall  be  in  their  foreheads.'— Rev.  xxii.  3,  4. 

One  may  well  shrink  from  taking  words  like  these  for 
a  text.  Their  lofty  music  will  necessarily  make  all 
words  of  ours  seem  thin  and  poor.  The  great  things 
about  which  they  are  concerned  are  so  high  above  us, 
and  known  to  us  by  so  few  channels,  that  usually  he 
who  says  least  speaks  most  wisely  about  them.  And 
yet  it  cannot  be  but  wholesome  if  in  a  reverent  spirit 
of  no  vain  curiosity,  we  do  try  to  lay  upon  our  hearts 
the  impressions  of  the  great,  though  they  be  dim, 
truths  which  gleam  from  these  words.  I  know  that  to 
talk  about  a  future  life  is  often  a  most  sentimental, 
vague,  unpractical  form  of  religious  contemplation, 
but  there  is  no  reason  at  all  why  it  should  be  so.  I 
wish  to  try  now  very  simply  to  bring  out  the  large 
force  and  wonderful  meaning  of  the  words  which  I 
have  ventured  to  read.  They  give  us  three  elements 
of  the  perfect  state  of  man — Service,  Contemplation, 
Likeness.    These  three  are  perfect  and  unbroken. 

I.  The  first  element,  then,  in  the  perfect  state  of  man 
is  perfect  activity  in  the  service  of  God.  Now  the 
words  of  our  text  are  remarkable  in  that  the  two 
expressions  for  '  servant '  and  '  serve '  are  not  related 
to  one  another  in  the  Greek,  as  they  are  in  the  English, 
but  are  two  quite  independent  words ;  the  former 
meaning  literally  '  a  slave,'  and  the  latter  being  exclu- 
sively confined  in  Scripture  to  one  kind  of  service.  It 
would  never  be  employed  for  any  service  that  a  man 
did  for  a  man ;  it  is  exclusively  a  religious  word,  and 

870 


vs.  3, 4]    WHITE  LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN         371 

means  only  the  service  that  men  do  for  God,  whether 
in  specific  acts  of  so-called  worship  or  in  the  wider 
worship  of  daily  life.  So  that  if  we  have  not  here  the 
notion  of  priesthood,  we  have  one  very  closely  approxi- 
mating towards  it ;  and  the  representation  is  that  the 
activity  of  the  redeemed  and  perfected  man,  in  the 
highest  ideal  condition  of  humanity,  is  an  activity 
which  is  all  worship,  and  is  directed  to  the  revealed 
God  in  Christ. 

That,  then,  is  the  first  thought  that  we  have  to  look 
at.  Now  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  very  touching  confes- 
sion of  the  weariness  and  unsatisfactoriness  of  life  in 
general  that  the  dream  of  the  future  which  has 
unquestionably  the  most  fascination  for  most  men,  is 
that  which  speaks  of  it  as  Rest.  The  religion  which 
has  the  largest  number  of  adherents  in  the  world — the 
religion  of  the  Buddhists — formally  declares  existence 
to  be  evil,  and  preaches  as  the  highest  attainable  good, 
something  which  is  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
annihilation.  And  even  though  we  do  not  go  so  far  as 
that,  what  a  testimony  it  is  of  burdened  hearts  and 
mournful  lives,  and  work  too  great  for  the  feeble 
limits  of  our  powers,  that  the  most  natural  thought  of 
a  blessed  future  is  as  rest  !  It  is  easy  to  laugh  at 
people  for  singing  hymns  about  sitting  upon  green  and 
fiowery  mounts,  and  counting  up  the  labours  of  their 
feet :  but  oh !  it  is  a  tragical  thought  that  whatsoever 
shape  a  life  has  taken,  howsoever  full  of  joy  and  sun- 
shine and  brightness  it  may  be,  deep  down  in  the  man 
there  is  such  an  experience  as  that  the  one  thing  he 
wants  is  repose  and  to  get  rid  of  all  the  trouble  and 
toil. 

Now  this  representation  of  my  text  is  by  no  means 
contradictory,  but  it  is  complementary,  of  that  other 


372  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

one.  The  deepest  rest  and  the  highest  activity  coincide. 
They  do  so  in  God  who  'worketh  hitherto'  in  undis- 
turbed tranquillity ;  they  may  do  so  in  us.  The  wheel 
that  goes  round  in  swiftest  rotation  seems  to  be  stand- 
ing still.  Work  at  its  intensest,  which  is  pleasurable 
work,  and  level  to  the  capacity  of  the  doer,  is  the 
truest  form  of  rest.  In  vacuity  there  are  stings  and 
torment;  it  is  only  in  joyous  activity  which  is  not 
pushed  to  the  extent  of  strain  and  unwelcome  effort 
that  the  true  rest  of  man  is  to  be  found.  And  the  two 
verses  in  this  Book  of  Revelation  about  this  matter, 
which  look  at  first  sight  to  be  opposed  to  each  other, 
are  like  the  two  sides  of  a  sphere,  which  unite  and 
make  the  perfect  whole.  *  They  rest  from  their  labours.' 
'  They  rest  not,  day  nor  night.' 

From  their  labours — yes;  from  toil  disproportioned 
to  faculty — yes !  from  unwelcome  work — yes !  from 
distraction  and  sorrow — yes !  But  from  glad  praise 
and  vigorous  service — never !  day  nor  night.  And  so 
with  the  full  apprehension  of  the  sweetness  and 
blessedness  of  the  tranquil  Heaven,  we  say :  It  is  found 
only  there,  where  His  servants  serve  Him.  Thus  the 
first  thought  that  is  presented  here  is  that  of  an 
activity  delivered  from  all  that  makes  toil  on  earth 
burdensome  and  unwelcome ;  and  which,  therefore,  is 
coincident  with  the  deepest  and  most  perfect  repose. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  think  of  a  blessed  life  which 
has  no  effort  in  it,  for  effort  is  the  very  salt  and  spice 
of  life  here  below,  and  one  can  scarcely  fancy  the 
perfect  happiness  of  a  spirit  which  never  has  the  glow 
of  warmth  that  comes  from  exercise  in  overcoming 
difficulties.  But  perhaps  effort  and  antagonism  and 
strain  and  trial  have  done  their  work  on  us  when  they 
have  moulded  our  characters,  and  when  *  school  is  over 


vs.  3, 4]    WHITE  LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN         873 

we  burn  the  rod';  and  the  discipline  of  joy  may  evolve 
nobler  graces  of  character  than  ever  the  discipline  of 
sorrow  did.  At  all  events,  we  have  to  think  of  work 
which  also  is  repose,  and  of  service  in  which  is 
unbroken  tranquillity. 

Then  there  is  further  involved  in  this  first  idea,  the 
notion  of  an  outer  world,  on  which  and  in  which  to 
work;  and  also  the  notion  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  in  which  the  active  spirit  may  abide,  and  through 
which  it  may  work. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  that  they  who  sleep  in  Jesus,  in 
the  period  between  the  shuffling  off  of  this  mortal  coil 
and  the  breaking  of  that  day  when  they  are  raised 
again  from  the  dead,  are  incapable  of  exertion  in  an 
outer  sphere.  Perhaps,  it  may  be,  that  by  reason  of 
the  absence  of  that  glorified  body  of  the  Resurrection, 
they  sleep  in  Jesus  in  the  sense  that  they  couch  at  the 
Shepherd's  feet  within  the  fold  until  the  morning 
comes,  when  He  leads  them  out  to  new  pastures.  It 
may  be.  At  all  events,  this  we  may  be  sure  of,  that  if 
it  be  so  they  have  no  desires  in  advance  of  their 
capacities ;  and  of  this  also  I  think  we  may  be  sure, 
that  whether  they  themselves  can  come  into  contact 
with  an  external  universe  or  not,  Christ  is  for  them  in 
some  measure  what  the  body  is  to  us  here  now,  and 
the  glorified  body  will  be  hereafter ;  that  being  absent 
from  the  body  they  are  present  with  the  Lord,  and 
that  He  is  as  it  were  the  Sensorium  by  which  they  are 
brought  into  contact  with  and  have  a  knowledge  of 
external  things,  so  that  they  may  rest  and  wait  and 
have  no  work  to  do,  and  have  no  effort  to  put  forth, 
and  yet  be  conscious  of  all  that  befalls  the  loved  ones 
here  below,  may  know  them  in  their  affliction,  and  not 
be  untouched  by  their  tears. 


374  REVELATION  [oh.xxii. 

But  all  that  is  a  dim  region  into  which  we  have  not 
any  need  to  look.  What  I  emphasise  is,  the  service  of 
Heaven  means  rest,  and  the  service  of  Heaven  means 
an  outer  universe  on  which,  and  a  true  bodily  frame 
with  which,  to  do  the  work  which  is  delight. 

The  next  point  is  this :  such  service  must  be  in  a  far 
higher  sphere  and  a  far  nobler  fashion  than  the  service 
of  earth.  That  is  in  accordance  with  the  analogy  of 
the  Divine  dealings.  God  rewards  work  with  more 
work.  The  powers  that  are  trained  and  exercised  and 
proved  in  a  narrower  region  are  lifted  to  the  higher. 
As  some  poor  peasant-girl,  for  instance,  whose  rich 
voice  has  risen  up  in  the  harvest-field  only  for  her  own 
delight  and  that  of  a  handful  of  listeners,  heard  by 
some  one  who  detects  its  sweetness,  may  be  carried 
away  to  some  great  city,  and  charm  kings  with  her 
tones,  so  the  service  done  in  some  little  corner  of  this 
remote,  rural  province  of  God's  universe,  apprehended 
by  Him,  shall  be  rewarded  with  a  wider  platform,  and 
a  nobler  area  for  work.  •  Thou  hast  been  faithful  in  a 
few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things.' 
God  sends  forth  His  children  to  work  as  apprentices 
here,  and  when  they  are  '  out  of  their  time,'  and  have 
'got  a  trade,'  He  calls  them  home,  not  to  let  their 
faculties  rest  unused,  but  to  practise  on  a  larger 
theatre  what  they  have  learned  on  earth. 

One  more  point  must  be  noticed,  viz.,  that  the  highest 
type  of  Heaven's  service  must  be  service  for  other 
people.  The  law  for  Heaven  can  surely  not  be  more 
selfish  than  the  law  for  earth,  and  that  is, '  He  that  is 
chief  est  amongst  you  let  him  be  your  servant.'  The  law 
for  the  perfect  man  can  surely  not  be  different  from 
the  law  for  the  Master,  and  the  law  for  Him  is,  '  Even 
Christ  pleased  not  Himself.'    The  perfection   of    the 


vs.  3. 4]    WHITE  LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN         375 

child  can  surely  not  be  different  from  the  perfection  of 
the  Father,  and  the  perfection  of  the  Father  is :  '  He 
maketh  His  sun  to  "shine,"  and  His  blessings  to  come 
— on  the  unthankful  and  on  the  good.' 

So  then  the  highest  service  for  man  is  the  service  for 
others ; — how,  where,  or  whom,  we  cannot  tell.  We 
too  may  be  •  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister ' 
(Heb.  i.  14),  but  at  all  events  not  on  ourselves  can  our 
activities  centre  ;  and  not  in  self -culture  can  be  the 
highest  form  of  our  service  to  God. 

The  last  point  about  this  first  matter  is  simply  this — 
that  this  highest  form  of  human  activity  is  all  to  be 
worship ;  all  to  be  done  in  reference  to  Him  ;  all  to  be 
done  in  submission  to  Him.  The  will  of  the  man  in  His 
work  is  to  be  so  conformed  to  the  will  of  God  as  that, 
whatsoever  the  hand  on  the  great  dial  points  to,  that 
the  hand  on  the  little  dial  shall  point  to  also.  Obedience 
is  joy  and  rest.  To  know  and  to  do  His  will  is  Heaven. 
It  is  Heaven  on  earth  in  so  far  as  we  partially  attain 
to  it,  and  when  with  enlarged  powers  and  all  imperfec- 
tions removed,  and  in  a  higher  sphere,  and  without 
interruptions  we  do  His  commandments,  hearkening  to 
the  voice  of  His  word,  then  the  perfect  state  will  have 
come.  Then  shall  we  enter  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory 
of  the  children  of  God,  when,  as  His  slaves,  we  serve 
Him  in  the  unwearied  activities  done  for  Him,  which 
make  the  worship  of  Heaven. 

II.  Next,  look  at  the  second  of  the  elements  here : — 
'  They  shall  see  His  face.'  Now  that  expression  •  seeing 
the  face  of  God  '  in  Scripture  seems  to  me  to  be 
employed  in  two  somewhat  different  ways,  according 
to  one  of  which  the  possibility  of  seeing  the  face  is 
affirmed,  and  according  to  the  other  of  which  it  is 
denied. 


876  REVELATION  [ch.  xxn. 

The  one  may  be  illustrated  by  the  Divine  word  to 
Moses:  'Thou  canst  not  see  My  face.  There  shall  no 
man  see  Me  and  live.'  The  other  may  be  illustrated  by 
the  aspiration  and  the  confidence  of  one  of  the  psalms  : 
•As  for  me,  I  shall  behold  Thy  face  in  righteousness.' 

A  similar  antithesis,  which  is  apparently  a  contra- 
diction, may  be  found  in  setting  side  by  side  the  words 
of  our  Saviour:  'Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for 
they  shall  see  God,'  with  the  words  of  the  Evangelist : 
'  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time.*  I  do  not  think 
that  the  explanation  is  to  be  found  altogether  in  point- 
ing to  the  difference  between  present  and  possible 
future  vision,  but  rather,  I  think,  the  Bible  teaches  what 
reason  would  also  teach:  that  no  corporeal  vision  of 
God  is  ever  possible;  still  further,  that  no  complete 
comprehension  and  knowledge  of  Him  is  ever  possible, 
and,  as  I  think  further,  that  no  direct  knowledge  of,  or 
contact  with,  God  in  Himself  is  possible  for  finite  man, 
either  here  or  yonder.  And  the  other  side  lies  in  such 
words  as  these,  which  I  have  already  quoted  :  '  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God.'  'As 
through  a  glass  darkly,  but  then  face  to  face.'  Where 
is  the  key  to  the  apparent  contradiction?  Here,  I 
think.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  manifest  God,  in  Him  only 
do  men  draw  near  to  the  hidden  Deity,  the  King  In- 
visible, who  dwelleth  in  the  light  that  is  inaccessible. 

Here  on  earth  we  see  by  faith,  and  yonder  there  will 
be  a  vision,  different  in  kind,  most  real,  most  immediate 
and  direct,  not  of  the  hidden  Godhood  in  itself,  but  of 
the  revealed  Godhood  manifest  in  Jesus  Christ,  whom 
in  His  glorified  corporeal  Manhood  we  shall  perceive, 
with  the  organs  of  our  glorified  body;  whom  in  His 
Divine  beauty  we  shall  know  and  love  with  heart  and 
mind,  in  knowledge  direct,  immediate,  far  surpassing 


VB.  3, 4]    WHITE  LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN         377 

in  degree,  and  different  in  kind  from,  the  knowledge  of 
faith  which  we  have  of  Him  here  below.  But  the 
infinite  Godhood  that  lies  behind  all  revelations  of 
Deity  shall  remain  as  it  hath  been  through  them  all — 
the  King  invisible,  whom  no  man  hath  seen  or  can  see. 
They  shall  see  His  face  in  so  far  as  they  shall  hold 
communion  with,  and  through  their  glorified  body  have 
the  direct  knowledge  of  Christ,  the  revealed  Deity. 

Whether  there  be  anything  more,  I  know  not;  1 
think  there  is  not ;  but  this  I  am  sure  of,  that  the  law 
for  Heaven  and  the  law  for  earth  alike  are, '  He  that 
hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father.' 

But  there  is  another  point  I  would  touch  upon  in 
reference  to  this  second  thought  of  our  text,  viz.,  its 
connection  with  the  previous  representation,  'They 
shall  serve  Him ' — that  is  work  in  an  outer  sphere ; 
'  they  shall  see  His  face ' — that  is  contemplation.  These 
two,  the  life  of  work  and  the  life  of  devout  communion 
— the  Martha  and  the  Mary  of  the  Christian  experience 
— are  antagonistic  here  below,  and  it  is  hard  to  re- 
concile their  conflicting,  fluctuating  claims  and  to  know 
how  much  to  give  to  the  inward  life  of  gazing  upon 
Christ,  and  how  much  to  the  outward  life  of  serving 
Him.  But,  says  my  text,  the  two  shall  be  blended  to- 
gether. 'His  servants  shall  serve  Him,'  nor  in  all 
their  activity  shall  they  lose  the  vision  of  His  face. 
His  servants  '  shall  see  His  face ' ;  nor  in  all  the 
still  blessedness  of  their  gaze  upon  Him  shall  they 
slack  the  diligence  of  the  unwearied  hands,  or  the 
speed  of  the  willing  feet.  The  Rabbis  taught  that  there 
were  angels  who  serve,  and  angels  who  praise,  but  the 
two  classes  meet  in  the  perfected  man,  whose  services 
shall  be  praise,  whose  praise  shall  be  service.  They  go 
forth  to  do  His  will,  yet  are  ever  in  the  House  of  the 


378  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

Lord.  They  work  and  gaze;  they  gaze  and  work. 
Resting  they  serve,  and  serving  they  rest;  perpetual 
activity  and  perpetual  vision  are  theirs.  '  They  serve 
Him,  and  see  His  face.' 

III.  The  last  element  is,  '  His  name  shall  be  in  their 
foreheads.'  That  is,  as  I  take  it — a  manifest  likeness 
to  the  Lord  whom  they  serve  is  the  highest  element  in 
the  perfect  state  of  redeemed  men.  We  hear  a  good  deal 
in  this  Book  of  the  Revelation  about  writing  the  names 
and  numbers  of  persons  and  of  powers  upon  men's 
faces  and  foreheads ;  as  for  instance,  you  remember  we 
read  about  the  '  number  of  the  beast '  written  upon  his 
worshippers,  and  about  *  the  name  of  the  new  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  name  of  my  God '  being  written  as  a 
special  reward,  •  upon  him  that  overcomes.'  The  meta- 
phor, as  I  suppose,  is  taken  from  the  old,  cruel  practice 
of  branding  a  slave  with  the  name  of  his  master.  And 
so  the  primary  idea  of  this  expression:  'His  slaves  shall 
bear  His  name  upon  their  foreheads,'  is  that  their  owner- 
ship shall  be  conspicuously  visible  to  all  that  look. 

But  there  is  more  than  that  in  it.  How  is  the  owner- 
ship to  be  made  visible  ?  By  His  name  being  in  their 
foreheads.  What  is  '  His  name '  ?  Universally  in 
Scripture  '  His  name '  is  His  revealed  character,  and  so 
we  come  to  this :  the  perfect  men  shall  be  known  to 
belong  to  God  in  Christ,  because  they  are  like  Him. 
The  ownership  shall  be  proved  by  the  likeness,  and 
that  likeness  shall  no  longer  be  hidden  in  their  hearts, 
no  longer  be  difficult  to  make  out,  so  blurred  and 
obliterated  the  letters  of  the  name  by  the  imperfections 
of  their  lives  and  their  selfishness  and  sin  ;  but  it  shall 
flame  in  their  foreheads,  plain  as  the  inscription  on 
the  high  priest's  mitre  that  declared  him  to  be  conse- 
crated to  the  Lord. 


vs.  3, 4]    WHITE  LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN         879 

And  so  that  lovely  and  blessed  thought  is  here  of  a 
perfect  likeness  in  moral  character,  at  all  events,  and  a 
wonderful  approximation  and  resemblance  in  other 
elements  of  human  nature  to  the  glorified  humanity 
of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  which  shall  be  the  token  that 
we  are  His. 

Oh !  what  a  contrast  to  the  partial  ownership,  proved 
to  be  partial  by  our  partial  resemblance  here  on  earth  ! 
We  say,  as  Christian  men  and  women,  that  we  bear 
His  name.  Is  it  written  so  that  men  can  read  it,  or  is  it 
like  the  name  of  some  person  traced  in  letters  of  gas 
jets  over  a  shop-front — half  blown  out  by  every  gust 
of  wind  that  comes?  Is  that  the  way  in  which  His 
name  is  written  on  your  heart  and  character?  My 
brother,  a  possibility  great  and  blessed  opens  before 
us  of  a  nobler  union  with  Him,  a  closer  approximation, 
a  clearer  vision,  a  perf  ecter  resemblance.  *  We  shall 
be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is* ! 

One  last  word.  These  three  elements,  service,  con- 
templation, likeness ;  these  three  are  not  different  in 
kind  from  the  elements  of  a  Christian  man's  life  here. 
You  can  enjoy  them  all  sitting  in  these  pews ;  in  the 
bustle  and  the  hurry  of  your  daily  life,  you  can  have 
every  one  of  them.  If  you  do  not  enjoy  them  here  you 
will  never  have  them  yonder.  If  you  have  never 
served  anybody  but  yourself  how  shall  death  make 
you  His  servant  ?  If  all  the  days  of  your  life  you  have 
turned  away  your  ear  when  He  has  been  saying  to  you 
'  Seek  ye  My  face,'  what  reason  is  there  to  expect  that 
when  death's  hammer  smashes  the  glass  through  which 
you  have  seen  darkly,  '  the  steady  whole  of  that  awful 
face '  will  be  a  pleasant  sight  to  you  ?  If  all  your  life 
you  have  been  trying,  as  some  of  you  men  and  women, 
old  and  young,  have  been  trying,  and  are  trying  now, 


880  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

to  engrave  the  name  of  the  beast  upon  your  foreheads, 
what  reason  have  you  to  expect  that  when  you  pass 
out  of  this  life  the  foul  signs  shall  disappear  in  a 
moment,  and  you  will  bear  in  your  brow  '  the  marks 
of  the  Lord  Jesus '  in  their  stead  ?  No !  No  !  These 
things  do  not  happen ;  you  have  got  to  begin  here 
as  you  mean  to  end  yonder.  Trust  Him  here  and  you 
will  see  Him  there.  Serve  Him  here  and  you  will  serve 
Him  yonder.  Write  His  new  Name  upon  your  hearts, 
and  when  you  pass  from  the  imperfections  of  life  you 
will  bear  His  name  in  your  foreheads. 

And  if  you  do  not — I  lay  this  upon  the  consciences  of 
you  all — if  you  do  not  you  will  see  Christ; — and  you 
will  not  like  it !  And  you  will  bear,  not  the  Image  of 
the  Heavenly,  which  is  life,  but  the  image  of  the  earthy, 
which  is  death  and  belli 


THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  OF  THE  ASCENDED 
CHRIST 

'Blessed  are  they  that  do  His  commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the 
Tree  of  Life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city.'— Rev.  zzii.  14. 

The  Revised  Version  reads :  *  Blessed  are  they  that 
wash  their  robes,  that  they  may  have  the  right  to  come 
to  the  Tree  of  Life.' 

That  may  seem  a  very  large  change  to  make,  from 
'keep  His  commandments,'  to  'wash  their  robes,'  but  in 
the  Greek  it  is  only  a  change  of  three  letters  in  one 
word,  one  in  the  next,  and  two  in  the  third.  And  the 
two  phrases,  written,  look  so  like  each  other,  that  a 
scribe,  hasty,  or  for  the  moment  careless,  might  very 
easily  mistake  the  one  for  the  other.    There  can  be  no 


▼.  14]  THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  881 

doubt  whatever  that  the  reading  in  the  Revised  Version 
is  the  correct  one.  Not  only  is  it  sustained  by  a  great 
weight  of  authority,  but  also  it  is  far  more  in  accord- 
ance with  the  whole  teaching  of  the  New  Testament 
than  that  which  stands  in  our  Authorised  Version. 

•Blessed  are  they  that  do  His  commandments,  that 
they  may  have  right  to  the  Tree  of  Life,'  carries  us 
back  to  the  old  law,  and  has  no  more  hopeful  a  sound 
in  it  than  the  thunders  of  Sinai.  If  it  were,  indeed, 
amongst  Christ's  last  words  to  us,  it  would  be  a  most 
sad  instance  of  His  '  building  again  the  things  He  had 
destroyed.'  It  is  relegating  us  to  the  dreary  old  round 
of  trying  to  earn  Heaven  by  doing  good  deeds ;  and  I 
might  almost  say  it  is  '  making  the  Cross  of  Christ  of 
none  effect.'  The  fact  that  that  corrupt  reading  came 
so  soon  into  the  Church  and  has  held  its  ground  so 
long,  is  to  me  a  very  singular  proof  of  the  difficulty 
which  men  have  always  had  in  keeping  themselves  up 
to  the  level  of  the  grand  central  Gospel  truth :  •  Not  by 
works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  by 
His  mercy.  He  saved  us.' 

'Blessed  are  they  that  wash  their  robes,  that  they  may 
have  right  to  the  Tree  of  Life,'  has  the  clear  ring  of 
the  New  Testament  music  about  it,  and  is  in  full  accord 
with  the  whole  type  of  doctrine  that  runs  through  this 
book ;  and  is  not  unworthy  to  be  almost  the  last  word 
that  the  lips  of  the  Incarnate  Wisdom  spoke  to  men 
from  Heaven.  So  then,  taking  that  point  of  view,  I 
wish  to  look  with  you  at  three  things  that  come  plainly 
out  of  these  words : — First,  that  principle  that  if  men 
are  clean  it  is  because  they  are  cleansed ;  *  Blessed  are 
they  that  wash  their  robes.'  Secondly,  It  is  the  cleansed 
who  have  unrestrained  access  to  the  source  of  life. 
And  lastly,  It  is  the  cleansed  who  pass  into  the  society 


382  REVELATION  [ch.xxii. 

of  the  city.  Now,  let  me  deal  with  these  three 
things : — 

First,  If  we  are  clean  it  is  because  we  have  been 
made  so.  The  first  beatitude  that  Jesus  Christ  spoke 
from  the  mountain  was, '  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit.' 
The  last  beatitude  that  He  speaks  from  Heaven  is, 
*  Blessed  are  they  that  wash  their  robes.'  And  the  act 
commended  in  the  last  is  but  the  outcome  of  the  spirit 
extolled  in  the  first.  For  they  who  are  poor  in  spirit 
are  such  as  know  themselves  to  be  sinful  men;  and 
those  who  know  themselves  to  be  sinful  men  are  they 
who  will  cleanse  their  robes  in  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

I  need  not  remind  you,  I  suppose,  how  continually 
this  symbol  of  the  robe  is  used  in  Scripture  as  an  ex- 
pression for  moral  character.  This  Book  of  the 
Apocalypse  is  saturated  through  and  through  with 
Jewish  implications  and  allusions,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  whatever  that  in  this  metaphor  of  the  cleansing 
of  the  robes  there  is  an  allusion  to  that  vision  that  the 
Apocalyptic  seer  of  the  Old  Covenant,  the  prophet 
Zechariah,  had  when  he  saw  the  high  priest  standing 
before  the  altar  clad  in  foul  raiment,  and  the  word 
came  forth,  *  Take  away  the  filthy  garments  from  him.' 
Nor  need  I  do  more  than  remind  you  how  the  same 
metaphor  is  often  on  the  lips  of  our  Lord  Himself, 
notably  in  the  story  of  the  man  that  had  not  on  the 
wedding  garment,  and  in  the  touching  and  beautiful 
incident  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  where 
the  exuberance  of  the  father's  love  bids  them  cast 
the  best  robe  round  the  rags  and  the  leanness  of 
his  long-lost  boy.  Nor  need  I  remind  you  how  Paul 
catches  up  the  metaphor,  and  is  continually  referring 
to  an  investing  and  a  divesting — the  putting  on  and  the 


v.U]  THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  888 

putting  oflp  of  the  new  and  the  old  man.  In  this  same 
Book  of  the  Apocalypse  we  see,  gleaming  all  through 
it,  the  white  robes  of  the  purified  soul :  *  They  shall 
walk  with  Me  in  white,  for  they  are  worthy.'  *  I  beheld 
a  great  multitude,  whom  no  man  could  number,  who 
had  washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.' 

And  so  there  are  gathered  up  into  these  last  words, 
all  these  allusions  and  memories,  thick  and  clustering, 
when  Christ  speaks  from  Heaven  and  says, '  Blessed 
are  they  that  wash  their  robes.' 

Well  then,  I  suppose  we  may  say  roughly,  in  our 
more  modern  phraseology,  that  the  robe  thus  so 
frequently  spoken  of  in  Scripture  answers  substan- 
tially to  what  we  call  character.  It  is  not  exactly  the 
man — and  yet  it  is  the  man.  It  is  the  self— and  yet  it 
is  a  kind  of  projection  and  making  visible  of  the  self, 
the  vesture  which  is  cast  round  '  the  hidden  man  of 
the  heart.' 

This  mysterious  robe,  which  answers  nearly  to  what 
we  mean  by  character,  is  made  by  the  wearer. 

That  is  a  solemn  thought.  Every  one  of  us  carries 
about  with  him  a  mystical  loom,  and  we  are  always 
weaving — weave,  weave,  weaving — this  robe  which  we 
wear,  every  thought  a  thread  of  the  warp,  every  action 
a  thread  of  the  weft.  We  weave  it  as  the  spider  does 
its  web,  out  of  its  own  entrails,  if  I  might  so  say.  We 
weave  it,  and  we  dye  it,  and  we  cut  it,  and  we  stitch  it, 
and  then  we  put  it  on  and  wear  it,  and  it  sticks  to  us. 
Like  a  snail  that  crawls  about  your  garden  patches, 
and  makes  its  shell  by  a  process  of  secretion  from  out 
of  its  own  substance,  so  you  and  I  are  making  that 
mysterious,  solemn  thing  that  we  call  character, 
moment  by  moment.    It  is  our  own  self,  modified  by 


884  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

our  actions.  Character  is  the  precipitate  from  the 
stream  of  conduct  which,  like  the  Nile  Delta,  gradually 
rises  solid  and  firm  above  the  parent  river  and  confines 
its  flow. 

The  next  step  that  I  ask  you  to  take  is  one  that  I 
know  some  of  you  do  not  like  to  take,  and  it  is  this : 
All  the  robes  are  foul.  I  do  not  say  all  are  equally 
splashed,  I  do  not  say  all  are  equally  thickly  spotted 
with  the  flesh.  I  do  not  wish  to  talk  dogmas,  I  wish 
to  talk  experience;  and  I  appeal  to  your  own  con- 
sciences, with  this  plain  question,  that  every  man  and 
woman  amongst  us  can  answer  if  they  like — Is  it  true 
or  is  it  not,  that  the  robe  is  all  dashed  with  mud 
caught  on  the  foul  ways,  with  stains  in  some  of  us  of 
rioting  and  banqueting  and  revelry  and  drunkenness ; 
sins  of  the  flesh  that  have  left  their  mark  upon  the 
flesh;  but  with  all  of  us  grey  and  foul  as  compared 
with  the  whiteness  of  His  robe  who  sits  above  us 
there  ? 

Ah  1  would  that  I  could  bring  to  all  hearts  that  are 
listening  to  me  now,  whether  the  hearts  of  professing 
Christians  or  no,  that  consciousness  more  deeply  than 
we  have  ever  had  it,  of  how  full  of  impurity  and 
corruption  our  characters  are.  I  do  not  charge  you 
with  crimes;  I  do  not  charge  you  with  guilt  in  the 
world's  eyes,  but,  if  we  seriously  ponder  over  our  past, 
have  we  not  lived,  some  of  us  habitually,  all  of  us  far 
too  often,  as  if  there  were  no  God  at  all,  or  as  if  we 
had  nothing  to  do  with  Him  ?  and  is  not  that  godless- 
ness  practical  Atheism,  the  fountain  of  all  foulness 
from  which  black  brooks  flow  into  our  lives,  and  stain 
our  robes  ? 

The  next  step  is.  The  foul  robe  can  be  cleansed.  My 
text  does  not  go  any  further  in  a  statement  of  the 


v.U]  THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  385 

method,  but  it  rests  upon  the  great  words  of  this  Book 
of  the  Revelation,  which  I  have  already  quoted  for 
another  purpose,  in  which  we  read  '  they  washed  their 
robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.' 
And  the  same  writer,  in  his  Epistle,  has  the  same  para- 
dox, which  seems  to  have  been,  to  him,  a  favourite 
way  of  putting  the  central  Gospel  truth :  *  The  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses  from  all  sin.'  John  saw  the 
paradox,  and  saw  that  the  paradox  helped  to  illustrate 
the  great  truth  that  he  was  trying  to  proclaim,  that 
the  red  blood  whitened  the  black  robe,  and  that  in  its 
full  tide  there  was  a  limpid  river  of  water  of  life, 
clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of  the  Cross  of 
Christ. 

Guilt  can  be  pardoned,  character  can  be  sanctified. 
Guilt  can  be  pardoned !  Men  say :  •  No !  We  live  in  a 
universe  of  inexorable  laws;  "What  a  man  soweth 
that  he  must  also  reap."  If  he  has  done  wrong  he 
must  inherit  the  consequences.* 

But  the  question  whether  guilt  can  be  pardoned  or 
not  has  only  to  do  very  remotely  with  consequences. 
The  question  is  not  whether  we  live  in  a  universe  of 
inexorable  laws,  but  whether  there  is  anything  in  the 
universe  but  the  laws ;  for  forgiveness  is  a  personal 
act,  and  has  only  to  do  secondarily  and  remotely  with 
the  consequences  of  a  man's  doings.  So  that,  if  we 
believe  in  a  personal  God,  and  believe  that  He  has  got 
any  kind  of  living  relation  to  men  at  all,  we  can 
believe— blessed  be  His  name! — in  the  doctrine  of 
forgiveness ;  and  leave  the  inexorable  laws  full  scope 
to  work,  according  as  His  wisdom  and  His  mercy  may 
provide.  For  the  heart  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
pardon  does  not  touch  those  laws,  but  the  heart  of  it  is 
this :  '  O  Lord !  Thou  wast  angry  with  me,  but  Thine 

2  b 


386  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

anger  is  turned  away,  Thou  hast  comforted  me  I  *  So 
guilt  may  be  pardoned. 

Character  may  be  sanctified  and  elevated.  Why  not, 
if  you  can  bring  a  sufficiently  strong  new  force  to  bear 
upon  it?  And  you  can  bring  such  a  force,  in  the 
blessed  thought  of  Christ's  death  for  me,  and  in  the 
gift  of  His  love.  There  is  such  a  force  in  the  thought 
that  He  has  given  Himself  for  our  sin.  There  is  such 
a  force  in  the  Spirit  of  Christ  given  to  us  through  His 
death  to  cleanse  us  by  His  presence  in  our  hearts. 
And  so  I  say,  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  power  of 
His  sacrifice  and  Cross,  cleanses  from  all  sin,  both  in 
the  sense  of  taking  away  all  my  guilt,  and  in  the  sense 
of  changing  my  character  into  something  loftier  and 
nobler  and  purer. 

Men  and  women !  Do  you  believe  that  ?  If  you  do 
not,  why  do  you  not  ?  If  you  do,  are  you  trusting  to 
what  you  believe,  and  living  the  life  that  befits  the 
confidence  ? 

One  word  more.  The  washing  of  your  robes  has  to 
be  done  by  you.  'Blessed  are  they  that  wash  their 
robes.'  On  one  hand  is  all  the  fulness  of  cleansing,  on 
the  other  is  the  heap  of  dirty  rags  that  will  not  be 
cleansed  by  you  sitting  there  and  looking  at  them. 
You  must  bring  the  two  into  contact.  How  ?  By  the 
magic  band  that  unites  strength  and  weakness,  purity 
and  foulness,  the  Saviour  and  the  penitent ;  the  magic 
band  of  simple  affiance,  and  trust  and  submission  of 
myself  to  the  cleansing  power  of  His  death  and  of  His 
life. 

Only  remember,  *  Blessed  are  they  that  are  ivashing,' 
as  the  Greek  might  read.  Not  once  and  for  all,  but  a 
continuous  process,  a  blessed  process  running  on  all 
through  a  man's  life. 


v.u]  THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  387 

These  are  the  conditions  as  they  come  from  Christ's 
own  lips,  in  almost  the  last  words  that  human  ears, 
either  in  fact  or  in  vision,  heard  Him  utter.  These  are 
the  conditions  under  which  noble  life,  and  at  last  Heaven, 
are  possible  for  men,  namely,  that  their  foul  characters 
shall  be  cleansed,  and  that  continuously,  by  daily  recur- 
rence and  recourse  to  the  Fountain  opened  in  His  sacri- 
fice and  death. 

Friends,  you  may  know  much  of  the  beauty  and 
nobleness  of  Christianity,  you  may  know  much  of  the 
tenderness  and  purity  of  Christ,  but  if  you  have  not 
apprehended  Him  in  this  character,  there  is  an  inner 
sanctuary  yet  to  be  trod,  of  which  your  feet  know 
nothing,  and  the  sweetest  sweetness  of  all  you  have 
not  yet  tasted,  for  it  is  His  forgiving  love  and  cleans- 
ing power  that  most  deeply  manifest  His  Divine  affec- 
tion and  bind  us  to  Himself. 

II.  The  second  thought  that  I  would  suggest  is  that 
these  cleansed  ones,  and  by  implication  these  only,  have 
unrestrained  access  to  the  source  of  life :  '  Blessed  are 
they  that  wash  their  robes,  that  they  may  have  right 
"  to  the  Tree  of  Life." '  That,  of  course,  carries  us  back 
to  the  old  mysterious  narrative  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Book  of  Genesis. 

Although  it  does  not  bear  very  closely  upon  my 
present  subject,  I  cannot  help  pausing  to  point  out 
one  thing,  how  remarkable  and  how  beautiful  it  is 
that  the  last  page  of  the  Revelation  should  come 
bending  round  to  touch  the  first  page  of  Genesis.  The 
history  of  man  began  with  angels  with  frowning  faces 
and  flaming  swords  barring  the  way  to  the  Tree  of  Life. 
It  ends  here  with  the  guard  of  Cherubim  withdrawn ; 
or  rather,  perhaps,  sheathing  their  swords  and  becom- 
ing guides  to  the  no  longer  forbidden  fruit,  instead  of 


388  REVELATION  [oh.  xxil 

being  its  guards.  That  is  the  Bible's  grand  symbolical 
way  of  saying  that  all  between — the  sin,  the  misery, 
the  death — is  a  parenthesis.  God's  purpose  is  not  going 
to  be  thwarted,  and  the  end  of  His  majestic  march 
through  human  history  is  to  be  men's  access  to  the 
Tree  of  Life  from  which,  for  the  dreary  ages — that  are 
but  as  a  moment  in  the  great  eternities — they  were 
barred  out  by  their  sin. 

However,  that  is  not  the  point  that  I  meant  to  say  a 
word  about.  The  Tree  of  Life  stands  as  the  symbol 
here  of  an  external  source  of  life.  I  take  '  lif e '  to  be 
used  here  in  what  I  believe  to  be  its  predominant  New 
Testament  meaning,  not  bare  continuance  in  existence, 
but  a  full,  blessed  perfection  and  activity  of  all  the 
faculties  and  possibilities  of  the  man,  which  this  very 
Apostle  himself  identifies  with  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  that  life,  says  John,  has  an 
external  source  in  Heaven  as  on  earth. 

There  is  an  old  Christian  legend,  absurd  as  a  legend, 
beautiful  as  a  parable,  that  the  Cross  on  which  Christ 
was  crucified  was  made  out  of  the  wood  of  the  Tree  of 
Life.  It  is  true  in  idea,  for  He  and  His  work  will  be 
the  source  of  all  life,  for  earth  and  for  Heaven, 
whether  of  body,  soul,  or  spirit.  They  that  wash 
their  robes  have  the  right  of  unrestrained  access  to 
Him  in  whose  presence,  in  that  loftier  state,  no 
impurity  can  live. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  thought  that  is  involved 
here,  of  how,  whilst  on  earth  and  in  the  beginnings  of 
the  Christian  career,  life  is  the  basis  of  righteousness : 
in  that  higher  world,  in  a  very  profound  sense, righteous- 
ness is  the  condition  of  fuller  life. 

The  Tree  of  Life,  according  to  some  of  the  old  Rab- 
binical legends,  lifted  its  branches,  by  an  indwelling 


v.U]  THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  889 

motion,  high  above  impure  hands  that  were  stretched 
to  touch  them,  and  until  our  hands  are  cleansed  through 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  its  richest  fruit  hangs  unreach- 
able, golden,  above  our  heads.  Oh !  brother,  the  ful- 
ness of  the  life  of  Heaven  is  only  granted  to  them  who, 
drawing  near  Jesus  Christ  by  faith  on  earth,  have 
thereby  cleansed  themselves  from  all  filthiness  of  the 
flesh  and  spirit. 

IIP.^  x^ally,  those  who  are  cleansed,  and  they  only, 
have  entrance  into  the  society  of  the  city. 

There  again  we  have  a  whole  series  of  Old  and  New 
Testament  metaphors  gathered  together.  In  the  old 
world  the  whole  power  and  splendour  of  great  kingdoms 
were  gathered  in  their  capitals,  Babylon  and  Nineveh 
in  the  past,  Rome  in  the  present.  To  John  the  forces 
of  evil  were  all  concentrated  in  that  city  on  the  Seven 
Hills.  To  him  the  antagonistic  forces  which  were  the 
hope  of  the  world  were  all  concentrated  in  the  real 
ideal  city  which  he  expected  to  come  down  from  Heaven 
— the  new  Jerusalem.  And  he  and  his  brother  who 
wrote  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  whoever  he  was — 
trained  substantially  in  the  same  school — have  taught 
us  the  same  lesson  that  our  picture  of  the  future  is  not 
to  be  of  a  solitary  or  self -regarding  Heaven,  but  of  '  a 
city  which  hath  foundations.' 

Genesis  began  with  a  garden,  man's  sin  sent  him  out 
of  the  garden.  God,  out  of  evil,  evolves  good,  and  for 
the  lost  garden  comes  the  better  thing,  the  found  city. 
'  Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  man.'  For 
surely  it  is  better  that  men  should  live  in  the  activities 
of  the  city  than  in  the  sweetness  and  indolence  of  the 
garden;  and  manifold  and  miserable  as  are  the  sins 
and  the  sorrows  of  great  cities,  the  opprobria  of  our 
ra.odern  so-called  civilisation,  yet  still  the  aggregation 


890  REVELATION  [ch.xxii 

of  great  masses  of  men  for  worthy  objects  generates 
a  form  of  character,  and  sets  loose  energies  and 
activities  which  no  other  kind  of  life  could  have 
produced. 

And  so  I  believe  a  great  step  in  progress  is  set  forth 
when  we  read  of  the  final  condition  of  mankind  as  being 
their  assembling  in  the  city  of  God.  And  surely  there, 
amidst  the  solemn  troops  and  sweet  societies,  the  long- 
loved,  long-lost  will  be  found  again.  I  cannot  believe 
that,  like  the  Virgin  and  Joseph,  we  shall  have  to  go 
wandering  up  and  down  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  when 
we  get  there,  looking  for  our  dear  ones.  '  Wist  ye  not 
that  I  should  be  in  the  Father's  house  ? '  We  shall  know 
where  to  find  them. 

•  We  shall  clasp  them  again, 
And  with  God  be  the  rest.' 

The  city  is  the  emblem  of  security  and  of  perman- 
ence. No  more  shall  life  be  as  a  desert  march,  with 
changes  which  only  bring  sorrow,  and  yet  a  dreary 
monotony  amidst  them  all.  We  shall  dwell  amid 
abiding  realities,  ourselves  fixed  in  unchanging  but 
ever-growing  completeness  and  peace.  The  tents  shall 
be  done  with,  we  shall  inhabit  the  solid  mansions  of  the 
city  which  hath  foundations,  and  shall  wonderingly 
exclaim,  as  our  unaccustomed  eyes  gaze  on  their 
indestructible  strength,  'What  manner  of  stones  and 
what  buildings  are  here!* — and  not  one  stone  of  these 
shall  ever  be  thrown  down. 

Dear  friends !  the  sum  of  all  my  poor  words  now  is 
the  earnest  beseeching  of  every  one  of  you  to  bring 
all  your  foulness  to  Christ,  who  alone  can  make  you 
clean.  'Though  thou  wash  thee  with  nitre,  and  take 
thee  much  soap,  yet  thine  iniquity  is  marked  before 


v.U]     CHRIST'S  LAST  INVITATION        391 

Me,  saith  the  Lord.'  'The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
cleanseth  from  all  sin.'  Submit  yourselves,  I  pray 
you,  to  its  purifying  power,  by  humble  faith.  Then 
you  will  have  the  true  possession  of  the  true  life  to- 
day, and  will  be  citizens  of  the  city  of  God,  even  while 
in  this  far-off  dependency  of  that  great  metropolis. 
And  when  the  moment  comes  for  you  to  leave  this 
prison-house,  an  angel '  mighty  and  beauteous,  though 
his  face  be  hid,'  shall  come  to  you,  as  once  of  old  to 
the  sleeping  Apostle.  His  touch  shall  wake  you,  and 
lead  you,  scarce  knowing  where  you  are  or  what  is 
happening,  from  the  sleep  of  life,  past  the  first  and 
second  ward,  and  through  the  iron  gate  that  leadeth 
unto  the  city.  Smoothly  it  will  turn  on  its  hinges, 
opening  to  you  of  its  own  accord,  and  then  you  will 
come  to  yourself  and  know  of  a  surety  that  the  Lord 
hath  sent  His  angel,  and  that  he  has  led  you  into  the 
home  of  your  heart,  the  city  of  God,  which  they  enter 
as  its  fitting  inhabitants  who  wash  their  robes  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb. 


CHRIST'S  LAST  INVITATION  FROM  THE  THRONE 

'  Let  him  that  is  athirst  come.    And  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of 
life  freely.'— Rev.  xxii.  17. 

The  last  verses  of  this  last  book  of  Scripture  are  like 
the  final  movement  of  some  great  concerto,  in  which 
we  hear  all  the  instruments  of  the  orchestra  swelling 
the  flood  of  triumph.  In  them  many  voices  are  audible 
alternately.  Sometimes  it  is  the  Seer  who  speaks, 
sometimes  an  angel,  sometimes  a  deeper  voice  from  the 
Throne,  that  of  Christ  Himself.  It  is  often  difficult, 
therefore,  amidst  these  swift  transitions,  to  tell  who  is 


392  REVELATION  [ch.xxii. 

the  speaker ;  but  one  thing  is  clear  that,  just  before 
the  verse  from  which  my  text  is  taken,  our  Lord  has 
been  proclaiming  from  the  Throne  His  royalty  and  His 
swift  coming  'to  render  to  every  man  according'  to 
his  work,  and  to  gather  His  own  into  the  city. 

After  that  solemn  utterance  He  is  silent  for  the 
moment,  and  there  is  a  great  hush.  Then  a  voice  is 
heard  saying,  '  Come ! '  It  is  the  voice  of  the  Bride 
in  whom  the  Spirit  speaks.  What  should  she  say,  in 
answer  to  His  promise,  but  pour  out  her  wish  for  its 
fulfilment?  How  should  the  Bride  not  long  for  the 
bridegroom?  Then  apparently  the  Seer  breaks  in, 
summoning  all  who  have  heard  Christ's  promise,  and 
the  Church's  prayer,  to  swell  her  cry  of  longing.  For, 
indeed.  His  coming  is  the  Divine  '  event  to  which  the 
whole  Creation  moves';  and  in  it  all  the  world's 
dreams  of  a  golden  age  are  fulfilled,  and  all  the  world's 
wounds  are  healed.    '  Let  him  that  heareth  say.  Come ! ' 

But  who  speaks  my  text  ?  Apparently  Christ  Him- 
self, though  its  force  would  not  be  materially  modified 
if  it  were  the  voice  of  John,  the  Seer.  It  is  His  answer 
to  the  cry  of  the  Church.  He  delays  His  coming ;  for 
this  among  other  reasons  that  all  the  world  may  hear 
His  gracious  invitation.  Then  there  are  two  comings 
in  this  verse — the  final  coming  of  Christ  to  the  world  ; 
the  invited  coming  of  the  world  to  Christ. 

Now,  it  is  obvious,  I  think,  that  such  a  way  of  under- 
standing our  text,  with  its  vivid  interchange  of  speakers 
and  subjects,  gives  a  far  richer  meaning  to  it  than  the 
interpretation  which  is  so  common  amongst  us,  which 
recognises  in  all  these  '  Comes '  only  a  reference  to  one 
and  the  same  subject,  the  approach  of  men  to  Jesus 
Christ  through  faith  in  Him. 

Let  us,  then,  listen  to  this  Voice  from  the  Throne, 


V.  17]     CHRIST'S  LAST  INVITATION        893 

almost  the  last  recordet?  words  of  the  ascended  Jesus, 
in  which  are  gathered  all  His  love  for  men  and  His 
longing  to  bless  them. 

I.  Now,  first  let  me  suggest  the  question — To  whom 
Christ  from  the  Throne  thus  calls  ? 

The  persons  addressed  are  designated  by  two  de- 
scriptions :  they  that  are  'athirst,'  and  those  that  'will.' 
In  one  aspect  of  the  former  designation  it  is  universal ; 
in  another  aspect  it  is  by  no  means  so.  The  latter 
designation  is,  alas !  anything  but  universal,  because 
there  are  many  men  that  thirst ;  and,  strange  as  it 
seems,  will  not  to  be  satisfied.  But  we  take  these  two 
apart,  and  look  at  them  separately. 

The  first  qualification  is  need,  and  the  sense  of  need. 
These  two  things,  alas!  do  not  go  together.  One  is 
universal,  the  other  by  no  means  so.  When  a  man  is 
thirsty  he  knows  that  he  is.  But  it  is  quite  possible 
that  your  soul's  lips  may  be  cracking  and  black  with 
thirst,  and  you  may  be  all  unconscious  of  it.  There  is 
a  universal  need  stamped  upon  men,  by  the  very  make 
of  their  spirits,  which  declares  that  they  must  have 
something  or  someone  external  to  themselves,  on  whom 
they  can  rest,  and  from  whom  they  can  be  satisfied. 
The  heart  yearns  for  another's  love ;  the  mind  is  rest- 
less till  it  grasps  reality  and  truth.  The  will  longs  to 
be  mastered,  even  though  it  rebels  against  the  Master, 
and  the  whole  nature  of  man  proclaims,  '  My  soul 
thirsteth  for  God ;  for  the  living  God.'  No  man  is  at 
rest  unless  he  is  living  in  conscious  amity  with,  and  in 
possession  of,  the  Father's  heart  and  the  Father's 
strength. 

But,  brethren,  half  of  you  do  not  know  what  ails 
you.  You  recognise  the  gnawing  discontent,  the  urg- 
ing restlessness,  the  continual  feeling  after  something 


394  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

more  than  you  have,  and  it  often  impels  you  on  the 
wrong  road.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  misinterpreting 
the  cry  of  the  Spirit,  and  that  misinterpretation  is  the 
crime  and  the  misery  of  millions  of  men  and  of  many 
in  this  building  this  evening.  That  they  shall  stifle 
their  true  need  under  a  pile  of  worldly  things,  that  they 
shall  direct  their  longings  to  what  can  never  satisfy 
them,  that  they  shall  put  away  all  thoughts  of  the  one 
sufficient  anchorage,  and  hold,  and  nourishment,  and 
refreshment,  and  gladness  of  the  spirit,  is  indeed  the 
state  and  the  misery  of  many  of  us. 

Perverted  tastes  are  by  no  means  confined  to  certain 
forms  of  disease  of  the  body.  There  is  the  same  per- 
version of  taste  in  regard  of  higher  things.  You  and 
I  are  made  to  feed  upon  God,  and  we  feed  upon  our- 
selves, and  one  another,  and  the  world,  and  all  the 
trash,  in  comparison  to  our  immortal  desires  and 
capacities,  which  we  find  around  us.  It  seems  to  me 
sometimes,  looking  upon  the  busy  life  in  the  midst  of 
which  we  live,  and  the  way  in  which,  from  Monday 
morning  to  Saturday  night,  each  man  is  hurrying  after 
his  chosen  pursuits,  as  if  we  were  all  stricken  with 
insanity,  and  chasing  after  dreams  ;  or  as  if,  if  I  might 
take  such  an  illustration,  we  were  like  the  actors  upon 
a  stage,  at  some  banquet  in  a  play,  pretending  with  great 
gusto  to  be  drinking  nothing,  out  of  cups  tinselled  to 
look  like  gold,  but  which  are  only  wood.  Do  you 
interpret  aright  the  immortal  thirst  of  your  soul? 
Having  the  need,  brother,  are  you  conscious  of  the 
need ;  and,  if  conscious,  do  you  know  where  the  fountain 
bubbles  up  that  will  supply  it?  I  fear— I  fear  that 
there  are  many  who,  if  they  would  interrogate  their 
own  hearts  honestly,  and  look  this  question  in  the 
face,  would  have  to  answer.  No!    It  is  'as  when  a 


V.17]     CHRIST'S  LAST  INVITATION        395 

thirsty  man  drearaeth,  and  behold !  he  drinketh  ;  but 
he  awaketh ;  and,  behold !  he  is  faint,  and  his  soul 
within  him  hath  appetite.' 

Now,  I  dare  say  there  are  many  who  are  not  aware  of 
this  thirst  of  the  soul.  No !  you  have  crushed  it  out, 
and  for  a  time  you  are  quite  satisfied  with  worldly 
success,  or  with  the  various  objects  on  which  you  have 
set  your  hearts.  It  will  not  last!  It  will  not  last! 
It  is  not  likely  to  last  even  the  length  of  your  life.  It 
will  not  last  any  longer.  Some  of  us  may  be  like  the 
cactus  that  grows  in  hot,  light  soil  in  eastern  lands, 
having  a  considerable  store  of  moisture  in  the  fleshy 
spike  that  will  help  it  through  a  long  time  of  drought, 
but  the  store  gets  used  up.  Be  sure  of  this,  that,  until 
you  go  to  Jesus  Christ,  you  dwell  in  '  a  dry  and  thirsty 
land  where  no  water  is.'  So  far  as  the  sense  of  need 
goes  this  text  may  not  appeal  to  you.  So  far  as  the 
reality  of  the  need  goes  it  certainly  does. 

Then,  look  at  the  other  designation  of  the  persons  to 
whom  Christ's  merciful  summons  comes  :  '  Whosoever 
will  let  him  take.'  Now,  I  said  that  the  former  desig- 
nation, in  one  view  of  it,  covered  the  whole  ground  of 
humanity.  We  cannot  say  that  of  this  other  one,  for 
we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  that  strange  and  most 
inexplicable  and  yet  most  certain  and  tragic  of  all  facts 
in  regard  to  men,  that  they  do  turn  away  their  wills 
from  the  merciful  call  of  God,  and  that  some  of  them, 
gnawing  their  very  tongues  with  thirst,  yet  put  away 
with  impatient  hand  the  sparkling  cup  that  He  offers 
to  them  freely.  There  is  nothing  sadder,  there  is 
nothing  more  certain,  than  that  we  poor  little  creatures 
can  assert  our  will  in  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Ix^ving- 
kindness,  and  can  thwart,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned, 
the   council  of  God  against  ourselves,      'How  often 


396  REVELATION  [ch.xxii. 

would  I  have  gathered,'  said  the  foiled,  long-suffering 
Christ — '  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  .  .  .  and  ye 
would  not !  *  Oh  !  brethren,  it  is  an  awful  thing  to  think 
that  with  this  universal  need  there  is  such  a  partial 
yielding  of  the  will  to  Him. 

I  do  not  enter  here  and  now  upon  the  various  reasons 
or  excuses  which  men  offer  to  themselves  and  one 
another  for  this  disinclination  to  accept  the  Divine 
mercy,  but  I  do  venture  to  say  that  the  solid  core  of 
unwillingness  to  be  saved  upon  Christ's  conditions 
underlies  a  vast  deal— not  all,  but  a  vast  deal — of  the 
supposed  intellectual  difficulties  of  men  in  regard  to  the 
Gospel.  The  will  bribes  the  understanding,  in  a  great 
many  regions.  It  is  a  very  common  thing  all  round 
the  horizon  of  thought  and  knowledge  that  a  man 
shall  believe  or  disbelieve  largely  under  the  influence 
of  prejudice  or  inclination.  So  let  no  man  be  offended 
if  I  say  that  what  we  have  to  guard  against,  in  all 
regions  of  thought,  we  have  also  to  guard  against  in 
our  relation  to  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  make  very 
sure  that,  when  we  think  we  are  being  borne  along  by 
pure,  impartial  reason,  the  will  has  not  put  a  bridle  in 
the  nose  of  the  steed,  and  is  guiding  it  astray. 

But  for  the  most  of  you  who  stand  apart  from  Jesus 
Christ  this  is  the  truth,  that  your  attitude  is  a  merely 
negative  one.  It  is  not  that  you  will  not  to  have  Him 
but  that  you  do  not  will  to  have  Him.  But  that  nega- 
tive attitude,  that  passive  indifference  which  largely 
comes  from  a  heart  that  does  not  like  to  submit  to 
the  conditions  that  Christ  imposes,  makes  a  positive 
hindrance  to  your  getting  between  your  lips  the  water 
of  life.  You  know  the  old  proverb:  One  man  can 
take  a  horse  to  the  water,  ten  cannot  make  him  drink. 
We  can  bring  you  to  the  water,  or  the  water  to  you, 


V.17]     CHRIST'S  LAST  INVITATION        897 

but  neither  Christ  nor  His  servants  can  put  the  re- 
freshing, life-giving  liquid  into  your  mouth  if  you  lock 
your  lips  so  tight  that  a  bristle  could  not  go  in  between 
them.  You  can  thwart  Christ,  and  when  He  says, 
'Take,  drink!'  you  can  shake  your  head  and  mumble, 
'I  will  not.'  So,  dear  friends,  I  beseech  you  to  take 
this  solemnly  into  consideration,  that  the  operative 
cause  why  most  of  us  who  are  not  Christians  are  not, 
is  simply  disinclination.  Wishing  is  one  thing ;  willing 
is  quite  another.  "Wishing  to  be  delivered  from  the 
gnawing  restlessness  of  a  hungry  heart,  and  to  be  satis- 
fied, is  one  thing;  willing  to  accept  the  satisfaction 
which  Christ  gives  on  the  terms  which  Christ  lays 
down  is,  alas !  quite  another. 

Seeing  that  to  know  our  need  and  to  be  willing  to 
let  Him  supply  it  in  His  own  fashion  are  the  only  quali- 
fications, then  how  magnificently  from  this  last  word 
of  the  Christ  from  the  Throne  comes  out  the  univer- 
sality of  His  Gospel.  *  Whosoever  will,'  that  is  all.  If 
you  choose  you  may.  No  other  conditions  are  laid 
down.  If  there  had  been  any  which  were  beyond  the 
power  of  every  soul  of  man  upon  earth,  then  Chris- 
tianity would  have  dwindled  to  a  narrow,  provincial, 
sectional  thing.  But,  since  it  only  demands  the  need, 
which  is  universal ;  the  sense  of  need,  which  every  man 
may  feel ;  and  willingness,  which  every  man  ought  to, 
and  can,  exercise,  it  is  the  Gospel  for  the  world,  and  it 
is  the  Gospel  for  me,  and  it  is  the  Gospel  for  each  of 
you.    See  that  ye  refuse  not  the  offered  draught. 

II.  That  brings  me,  secondly,  to  say  a  word  about 
what  Christ  from  heaven  thus  offers  to  us  all. 

This  book  of  Revelation,  as  I  have  already  remarked, 
in  another  connection,  is  the  close  of  the  great  Revela- 
tion of  God ;  and  it  is  full  of  the  echoes  of  His  earlier 


898  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

words.  The  river  of  the  water  of  life  has  been  rippling 
and  tinkling  from  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  to  the 
last  of  Revelation.  It  is  the  river  that  flowed  through 
Eden ;  the  river  which  makes  glad  with  its  streams  the 
City  of  God,  the  river  of  the  Divine  pleasures,  of  which 
God  makes  His  children  drink;  the  river  which  the 
prophet  saw  stealing  out  from  under  the  Temple  doors, 
and  carrying  life  whithersoever  it  came;  the  river 
which  Christ  proclaimed  should  flow  from  because  it 
had  flowed  into,  all  that  should  believe  upon  Him, '  the 
river  of  the  water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,'  which  the 
Seer  had  just  seen  proceeding  from  the  Throne  of  God 
and  of  the  Lamb.  Our  Lord's  words  to  the  Samaritan 
woman,  and  His  words  on  that  last  great  day  of  the 
feast,  when  He  stood  and  cried,  '  If  any  man  thirst  let 
him  come  to  Me  and  drink,'  and  many  another  gracious 
utterance,  are  all  gathered  up,  as  it  were,  in  this  last 
Voice  from  the  Throne. 

The  water  of  life  is  not  merely  living  water,  in  the 
sense  that  it  flashes  and  sparkles  and  flows ;  but  it  is 
water  which  communicates  life.  '  Life '  here  is  to  be 
taken  in  that  deep,  pregnant,  comprehensive  sense  in 
which  the  Apostle  John  uses  it  in  all  his  writings.  It 
is  his  shorthand  symbol  for  the  whole  aggregate  of  the 
blessings  which  come  to  men  through  Jesus  Christ, 
and  which,  received  by  men,  make  them  blessed  indeed. 

The  first  thought  that  emerges  from  this  '  water  of 
life,'  considered  as  being  the  sum  of  all  that  Christ 
communicates  to  humanity  is — then,  where  it  does  not 
run  or  is  not  received,  there  is  death.  Ah,  brother,  the 
true  death  is  separation  from  God,  and  the  true  separa- 
tion from  God  is  not  brought  about  because  He  is  in 
heaven,  and  we  are  upon  earth ;  or  because  He  is  in- 
finite and  incomprehensible,  and  we  are  poor  creatures 


V.17]     CHRIST'S  LAST  INVITATION        399 

of  an  hour,  but  because  we  depart  from  Him  in  heart 
and  mind,  and,  as  another  Apostle  says,  are  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins.  Death  in  life,  a  living  death,  is  far 
more  dreadful  than  when  the  poor  body  is  laid  quiet 
upon  the  bed,  and  the  spirit  has  left  the  pale  cheeks. 
And  that  death  is  upon  us,  unless  it  has  been  banished 
from  us  by  a  draught  of  the  water  of  life.  Dear 
brethren,  that  is  not  pulpit  rhetoric ;  it  is  the  deepest 
fact  about  human  nature.  It  is  not  a  mere  metaphor. 
I  take  it  that  the  death  of  the  body  is  metaphor,  so  to 
speak,  the  embodiment  in  material  form,  as  a  parable 
of  the  far  grimmer  thing  which  goes  on  in  the  region 
of  the  spirit.  And  I  beseech  you  to  remember  that 
according  to  the  whole  teaching  of  Scripture,  which  I 
think  is  countersigned  by  the  verdict  of  an  awakened 
conscience,  death  is  the  separation  from  God  by  sin; 
and  the  only  quickening  potion  is  the  water  which 
Christ  gives ;  or  rather,  as  He  Himself  said,  *  He  that 
drinketh  of  My  blood  hath  life  indeed.' 

But,  then,  besides  all  these  thoughts,  there  come 
others,  on  which  I  need  not  dwell,  that  in  that  great 
emblem  of  the  water  that  gives  life  is  included  the  satis- 
faction of  all  desires,  meeting  and  over-answering  all 
expectations,  filling  up  every  empty  place  in  the  heart, 
in  the  hopes,  in  the  whole  inward  nature  of  man,  and 
lavishing  upon  him  all  the  blessings  which  go  to  make 
up  true  gladness,  true  nobleness,  and  dignity.  Nor 
does  the  eternal  life  cease  when  physical  death  comes. 
The  river — if  I  might  modify  the  figure  with  which  I 
am  dealing,  and  regard  the  man  himself  in  his  Christian 
experience  as  the  river — flows  through  a  narrow,  dark 
gorge,  like  one  of  the  canons  on  American  streams, 
and  down  to  its  profoundest  depths  no  sunlight  can 
travel.     But  the  waters  are  not  diminished  though 


400  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

they  are  confined,  nor  are  they  arrested  by  the  black 
rocks,  but  at  the  other  end  of  the  defile  they  come  out 
into  flashing  sunset  and  sparkle  and  flow.  And  away 
somewhere  in  the  dark  gorge  mighty  tributaries  have 
poured  in,  so  that  the  stream  is  broader  and  deeper, 
and  pours  a  more  majestic  volume  towards  the  great 
ocean  from  which  it  originally  came. 

Brother,  here  is  the  offer — life  eternal,  deliverance 
from  the  death  of  sin  both  as  guilt  and  power;  the 
pouring  out  upon  us  of  all  the  blessing  that  our  thirsty 
spirits  can  desire,  and  the  perpetuity  of  that  blessed 
existence  and  endless  satisfaction  through  the  infinite 
ages  of  timeless  being.  These  are  the  offers  that  Christ 
makes  to  each  of  us. 

III.  Lastly,  what  Christ  from  heaven  calls  us  to  do. 

'  He  that  is  athirst  let  him  come  ;  and  whosoever  will 
let  him  take  ! '  The  two  things,  coming  and  taking,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  cover  substantially  the  same  ground. 
You  often  hear  earnest,  evangelical  preachers  reiterate 
that  call — ' Come  to  Jesus !  come  to  Jesus!' with  more 
fervour  than  clearness  of  explanation  of  what  they 
mean.  So,  I  would  say,  in  one  sentence  emphatically, 
and  as  plainly  as  I  can  put  it,  that  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
has  told  us  what  He  means.  Because  when  He  was 
here  upon  earth  He  stood  and  cried,  '  If  any  man  thirst 
let  him  come  to  Me  and  drink.'  And  He  explained 
Himself  when  He  said, '  He  that  cometh  unto  Me  shall 
never  hunger,  and  he  that  believeth  on  Me  shall  never 
thirst.'  So  let  us  put  away  the  metaphors  of  '  coming ' 
and  *  taking '  and  lay  hold  of  the  Christ-given  interpre- 
tation of  them,  and  say  the  one  thing  that  Christ  asks 
me  to  do  is  to  trust  my  poor,  sinful  self  wholly  and 
confidently  and  constantly  and  obediently  to  Him. 
That  is  all. 


V.  I7j      CHJUST'S  LAST  INVlTATlOls^       401 

Ah !  All !  And  that  is  just  where  the  pinch  comes.  '  My 
father !  my  father  ! '  remonstrated  Naaman's  servants, 
when  he  was  in  a  towering  passion  because  he  was  told 
to  go  wash  in  the  Jordan ;  '  if  the  prophet  had  bidden 
thee  do  some  great  thing,  wouldst  thou  not  have  done 
it?  How  much  rather  then  when  he  saith  to  thee, 
Wash  and  be  clean  ? '  Naaman's  strange  reluctance  to 
do  a  little  thing  in  order  to  produce  a  great  effect 
whilst  he  was  willing  to  take  a  mint  of  trouble  in  order 
to  produce  it,  is  repeated  over  and  over  again  amongst 
us.  You  will  see  men  buy  damnation  dear  who  will 
not  have  salvation  because  it  is  a  gift  and  they  have 
nothing  to  do.  I  do  believe  that  great  multitudes  of 
people  would  rather,  like  the  Hindoos,  stick  hooks  in 
the  muscles  of  their  backs,  and  swing  at  the  end  of  a 
rope  if  that  would  get  heaven  for  them,  than  simply  be 
content  to  come  in  formA  pauperis,  and  owe  everything 
to  Christ's  grace,  and  nothing  to  their  own  works. 

Why !  what  is  the  meaning  of  all  this  new  vitality  of 
sacerdotal  notions  amongst  us  to-day,  and  of  the  efficacy 
of  sacraments,  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  except  the  pur- 
blindness  to  the  flashing  glory  of  the  central  truth  of 
the  Gospel  that  not  by  anything  that  we  do,  but  simply 
by  His  Cross  and  passion  received  by  faith  into  our 
hearts,  are  we  saved?  Brethren,  it  is  not  theology 
about  Christ's  sacrifice,  but  it  is  the  Christ  whom  the 
theology  about  His  sacrifice  explains  that  you  must 
get  hold  of.  And  if  you  trust  Him  you  have  come  to 
Him  in  a  very  real  sense,  and  have  His  presence  with 
you,  and  you  are  present  with  Him  far  more  really 
than  were  the  men  who  companied  with  Him  all  the 
time  that  He  went  in  and  out  amongst  them  here  on 
this  earth.     So  much  for  the  '  come.' 

•  Let  him  take.'    Well,  that  being  translated,  too,  is 

2c 


402  REVELATION  [ch.  xxii. 

but  the  exercise  of  lowly  trust  in  Him.  Faith  is  the 
hand  that,  being  put  out,  grasps  this  great  gift.  You 
must  make  the  universal  blessing  your  own.  The  river 
flows  past  your  door,  broader  and  deeper  and  more 
majestic  than  the  'father  of  waters'  itself.  But  all 
that  is  naught  to  you  unless  you  take  your  own  little 
pitcher  to  the  brink  and  fill  it,  and  take  it  home.  '  He 
loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me.'  Do  you  say  that? 
Dear  brother!  are  you  athirst?  I  know  you  are. 
Do  you  know  it?  Are  you  willing  to  take  Christ's 
salvation  on  Christ's  terms,  and  to  live  by  faith  in  Him, 
communion  with,  and  obedience  to  Him  ?  If  you  are, 
then  earth  may  yield  or  deny  you  its  waters,  but  you 
will  not  be  dependent  on  them.  When  all  the  land  is 
parched  and  baked,  and  every  surface  well  run  dry, 
you  will  have  a  spring  that  fails  not,  and  the  water 
that  Christ  *  will  give  you  will  be  in  you  a  fountain  of 
water  leaping  up  into  everlasting  life.'  Nor  will  your 
supplies  fail  when  death  cuts  off  all  that  flow  from 
earthly  cisterns,  for  they  who  here  drink  of  the  river 
will  hereafter  go  up  to  the  Source,  and  'they  shall 
hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more,  for  the  Lamb 
that  is  in  the  midst  of  the  Throne  shall  feed  them,  and 
shall  lead  them  to  living  fountains  of  water,  and  God 
the  Lord  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes.' 


1 


Date  Due 


BS491.M16  62 

The  epistles  of  John,  Jude  and  the  Book 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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